Road Trip = Hope Renewed

Let me start by saying that I hope this blog makes sense because I have about a 1,000 thoughts running through my mind and I hope that I can formulate them into a comprehensive post.

My sister called me at 8:30 and asked me to come and stay with her tonight because her husband is gone.  So while I was driving over to Peoria, I was randomly flipping through my CD's and hit upon Jesus Culture and boom, a new post is born.  But first, let me back up a bit.

As those of you who have been reading my blog know, the past few months have been really difficult.  I've been struggling a lot with my relationship with Jesus and whether or not I really hear Him.  Tuesday morning I woke up at 2am with a horrible sore throat - it hurt to swallow so yesterday was a struggle to go to work.  About 1pm, I got an email from an old friend and when I started reading it, I immediately burst into tears.  He told me that he'd meant to email me last week but I'd been on his mind and he'd been praying for me and wanted to know if there was anything particular going on.  And then he told me he found an old letter I'd written to him when I was in YWAM (I know - who writes letters anymore?  It was over 10 years ago).  I'd shared a picture that I felt like God had shown me - I saw a big pile of glass beads w/ someone shuffling through them. All of a sudden a piece of thread w/ a needle on the end of it appeared. I felt like God was telling me if I let Him He would make this incredible necklace out of my life one bead at a time, if I was willing to let Him, instead of doing it my way and putting on any old beads, just so the necklace would be finished quickly. He told me he didn't know if it meant anything but felt like he needed to share it with me.

I emailed him back and told him that I needed to be reminded that God hadn't forgotten me and that it did in fact mean something to me.  He responded back that God was in fact amazing, because he'd been doubting his ability to hear God because of circumstances he was dealing with and my response confirmed to him that he did in fact hear God.  How cool is that?  But wait there's more.

Back to Jesus Culture - the first song that played was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZoOfGiqZ7Y and these words hit me like a sledgehammer:

I have a plan for you
I have a plan for you
It's gonna be wild
It's gonna be great
It's gonna be full of me

This brought such hope and joy to me.....but I felt like it was for more than just me.  I felt like it was an encouragement for all those of us who have been struggling recently in one way or another.  I've listened to that CD several times and have never heard those words before.  Clearly, after the email I got yesterday and the words I heard tonight, it seems like God is about to do something really cool.   And even if it doesn't happen immediately, it has given me a renewed hope about what God has in store for me.  I hope those of you who are reading this feel encouraged as well.