Hurt vs. Harm

I've found myself in this place where the future is so far out of my control that I just have to trust that the God in control isn't sadistic because otherwise...I'm out of luck. I keep coming back (a bit unwillingly) to the ageless Christian response to the future: Jeremiah 29:11. I have brushed it off and tried to push it away. It's in the Bible...I say I believe the Bible, but I really just do not know where to put that.

God has asked plenty of people around me to walk through some terribly difficult things...things no one in their right mind asks to experience. It was His plan...and quite honestly, it sucked. No one can deny that it was just not a lot of fun for them to go through that, and God definitely asked them too. Because they are of older and better faith than I, they did it; but it hurt.

Finally, after I'm not quite sure how much burying, running, hiding and just about every other form of avoidance, I made peace with that bit. God promises that His plans are not to harm you. This is not a statement about pain. Instead, it is about damage.

It will hurt. It will suck. It will be just shy of unbearably difficult. But it will be good. It will not destroy you nor will it leave you paralyzed under a weight that traps you. His plans are for freedom and for hope. And we should not confuse the cost of those with the outcome. He gives us enough and makes us new.