People make plans all the time … whether it’s plans to go away on holidays (which for many of us have been on hold for the last two years), plans for how to celebrate an upcoming birthday or how we will spend Election day on 21 May, or plans for getting fit or losing weight. Such plans help add meaning to our life and give us a future to look forward to.
There’s a well-known verse in the book of Jeremiah that suggests that God has plans too, good plans … plans to prosper us, plans to give us hope and a future. This promise is spoken in the midst of a dismal medium-term outlook for Israel that includes loss of their land, loss of the temple and exile to Babylon. God seems to be saying that there is a bigger perspective here, if we have eyes to see it and trust to grasp it.
Jesus too had a plan for his followers that is summarised in Acts 1:8, namely that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. In its historical context, this plan gives an outline of how the message of good news spread from its starting point in Jerusalem all the way to Rome, the centre of the then known world.
How might this plan apply to us today? It suggests that we begin where we are and live out our witness – through both our words and our actions – among our friends and our neighbours. As the opportunity arises, we can carry the message about God’s love and justice wherever we go. One benediction puts it this way … Go into the world in peace; carry God’s wisdom, speak forth God’s word and embody God’s love, wherever you are and whoever you meet.