“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Summer of 2022 – My first summer not being in school since 2018. I achieved my dream of becoming Dr. Kimberly Russell in May, and I looked forward to going to the beach without watching the clock to get home and work on a paper. I also looked forward to thinking about the big question:

What now?

I put off making some big decisions about where I worked and lived until I was done with school. . . which was a great way to procrastinate for 4 years. But now with school done (woohoo!!), there was time to focus on discovering what God had next for me. Perhaps I asked God the wrong questions because I didn’t get the direction and guidance I sought. So, I changed my prayer:

God, prepare me for what You want me to do next, and give me an obedient heart for when You show me.

Now, I’ve prayed the “use me” prayer before, and I’ll tell you it’s a dangerous thing because God will take you up on it. The last time I surrendered and asked God to use me for whatever He needed me to do, I ended up becoming a worship leader and having my whole view of worship turned upside down.

It’s a life-changing thing to pray, if you’re willing to go wherever God leads you, because God already has a plan for you.

Jeremiah 29 is the prophet Jeremiah’s letter to the Israelites who were exiled to Babylon, proclaiming God’s message to His chosen people. God says He has a plan for His people: “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” (vs. 11b).

Wait, God tells us He has a plan. . . and it’s a good one.

And here’s the amazing thing- God has a history of having plans, plans He brings to fruition for those who step out and trust Him. Genesis is one of my “comfort books” (like comfort food, but without the calories) because time after time God proclaims a plan and follows through on His promised result. God proved time and time again, through Abraham and Joseph and Moses, that His plans are good.

His plans were good then, and they’re good now.

But God’s message to the Israelites doesn’t stop there. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (vs. 11-12).

Call out to Him . . . ask Him to use you, and He will hear you.

Come to Him. . . humble and available, and He will acknowledge you.

Pray to Him. . . ask Him for wisdom, and He will listen.

Seek Him with your heart. . . your whole heart. . . and you will hear Him.

And He won’t leave you alone in the plan.

Wow. Just wow.

Back to 2022 – I was cleaning my living room (which is a miracle in itself – not much cleaning happens once the sun is out and my beach pass is valid) and I asked God, again, what He wanted me to do. No kidding, clear as day, He said,”Write.”

I’d spent the past 4 years writing about education and mind-wandering (which you might be doing right now, but that’s a topic for another time), and I have a passion for the art of teaching, so maybe I was supposed to write about that. I submitted some articles and proposals for publication. . . and heard nothing. Ok, so that must not be the door I should be knocking on.

But sometimes I get so overwhelmed and excited about God and what He’s doing in my life that I can hardly contain myself – and I don’t have an outlet to share it.

So, I’m blogging. I’m knocking on this door and trusting God will open it. I’m stepping out into God’s plan for me. I’m writing about living in the goodness of God.

Because somewhere, someone needs to read about how big, how powerful, how overwhelming, and how loving our God is. And that’s what this blog will be – a testimony to the Goodness of God.

How available are you for God to use you right now? What steps are you taking to discover His next plan for you?

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV