In Christ Alone

I'm sitting in my quiet house while my family sleeps listening to Kristian Stanfill's "In Christ Alone".  My favorite part of that song is in the third verse where it states "no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand". Every time I hear that line I have a part of my soul, deep down in the farthest corners that screams... yes... please be true. I know that God's plan for my life is certain and secure, I just feel I have walked so long not knowing, seeing or really understanding where it was taking me that even on the right road I have felt lost. Even in the place I know where I'm supposed to be, I have found myself questioning my own sureness. For weeks I have been having a dream about my kitchen being unorganized. In the dream I am standing in front of my cabinets looking at a mess. I try to bring order to the chaos and can never get it to work. I stand there frustrated and overwhelmed. I haven't even realized the implications of this dream until Thursday night. You see I got a phone call last week and interviewed for a job doing marketing and bookkeeping for a local cabin rental company. As I talked to the lady about what all she needed I was so excited about being able to help her a couple days a week. At the same time this week I have finally gotten some clear direction from God about what I feel called to do with my life and in ministry. After sitting with my pastor and wife to get some clarity and a starting point, I have spent every spare moment all week working on writing some plans and putting some stuff down that I need to move forward. So back to Thursday night....I woke up Friday and before I even opened my eyes I had such an awareness of God's presence in my life. I dreamed Thursday night that I was standing in my kitchen and every shelf, every drawer, every can of food was in place, organized, sorted. Nothing was out of place. There was order where there had been none. I wasn't the one that organized it either. It was just done. As I meditated on the meaning (ok, come on... sometimes you have to really pray for God to show you the meaning of a dream, sometimes it's like Duh!) Anyway... as I meditated God showed me this. The kitchen refers to your heart... it's the heart of the home where all sustanence comes from. Our heart is our intent, motives, plans, passion, ambitions... our true desires that are placed there by God. For two years my life has felt chaotic. I have done everything I could to tame it. I lost my dream job 2 yrs ago and never thought that I would ever be happy in another job again. I literally felt like a scheme of man had robbed me from His plan. I've put very strict boundaries on relationships in my life. I don't give my presence to people who use me or hurt me. I live in a bubble and protect my heart from those who walk on it without regard. I've brought order to my life in all the ways I know how, yet I still had chaos. Yet, suddenly in the one moment, there is order. And the order is coming from His divine plan, not from anything that I could ever fathom or put together. He has brought order where there has been none. He has pushed me into the place that I needed to be. I haven't always gone willingly. In fact I have rarely gone willingly anywhere He has wanted to take me recently. But oh my goodness.... what's coming is so much more than I could ever imagine. I'm going to get to do what I love. I get to be creative. I get to imagine and dream and do all those deep things in my heart. I get to solve problems and make a plan. I get to do exactly what I was created to do..... and no power in hell.... no scheme of man can pluck me from His hand!