Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NLT)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
This summer I stayed with family in a place that seemed to be a million miles away from my job. There'll be more on that later. I met two of my cousins (twin boys) who are near the end of their pre-teen stage and starting to deal with the onslaught of puberty and anything else that you can think of that comes with being an adolescent. Being part of a church going family I realized that there was an opportunity to help them overcome potential obstacles more quickly during this time than I did when I was their age. Simply put I tested them all summer by assigning scriptures verses and having them talk about the application of them to our lives. Time will tell how deep the verses went and rather or not they resounded with them.
In one particular instance one of the twins was reciting Jeremiah 29:11-14. That week's principle was purpose; I had what seemed to be an epiphany..."when you seek the Lord with all your heart..."
This summer I spent a lot of time "looking for God". More specifically I was wanting more clarity on my future beyond graduate school and my next "career". I had sought him a lot and often this past summer but am unable to articulate if it was with or without "all my heart".
What I can say, is that I did find him...to this day I am still searching, because I haven't found Him all (all of him).
[Excerpt from August 20, 2011]
Today I took my certification test which is a step towards becoming recognized as an expert. Granted the test isn’t difficult, I understand that it took a journey to get to this point and I will not take it lightly. Naturally I passed the test, to God be the Glory! On the way home I felt like I needed to run. I didn’t care where, I just had to run.
It was about 1pm EST when I decided to start and had to be at least 80 some odd degrees outside. I didn’t care. I started running unsure of where I was going and then I had pictured the community college in my mind.
Prior to this I pictured the overpass for a major highway which I always think is closer than it really is. As soon as I got to the community college which is well before the overpass the Spirit said to me, “BWI”.
Now…BWI is where I catch the Amtrak train from to go into Washington, D.C. It’s also about a good 6-7 miles from the house. I did it anyways. It took a while to get there but I felt good after it was done. I always run a victory lap at or near the end of an accomplishment, just as I did with my graduation from undergrad and will do with my graduation from CMU.
Today I took my certification test which is a step towards becoming recognized as an expert. Granted the test isn’t difficult, I understand that it took a journey to get to this point and I will not take it lightly. Naturally I passed the test, to God be the Glory! On the way home I felt like I needed to run. I didn’t care where, I just had to run.
It was about 1pm EST when I decided to start and had to be at least 80 some odd degrees outside. I didn’t care. I started running unsure of where I was going and then I had pictured the community college in my mind.
Prior to this I pictured the overpass for a major highway which I always think is closer than it really is. As soon as I got to the community college which is well before the overpass the Spirit said to me, “BWI”.
Now…BWI is where I catch the Amtrak train from to go into Washington, D.C. It’s also about a good 6-7 miles from the house. I did it anyways. It took a while to get there but I felt good after it was done. I always run a victory lap at or near the end of an accomplishment, just as I did with my graduation from undergrad and will do with my graduation from CMU.
Sumthn2Ponder (s2p):
- What does it mean to do something "with all your heart"?
- Does seeking the Lord with all our heart imply that we might get hurt [in the process]?
- Is it possible to seek him with all our heart or is it merely a metaphor?
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