Morning Devotional

November  14, 2005
"A Different Plan"       
    by Don Emmitte

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Jesus replied, "The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone--a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who despise their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:23-25 NLT).

Sometimes the depth of thought from the simplest things strikes me. Today it was a telephone pole! A telephone pole nursed no life-long ambition to telecommunications greatness. It was once a Douglas fir towering nearly 80 feet above the forest floor. Its trunk swayed gently as the winds passed over its mountainside. Its great arms, clothed with successive layers of green foliage, shaded the under-story plants. Yet one day the sound of a bulldozer disturbed its mountain fastness. The roar of chainsaws sent a chill through the trees, and they fell one by one. More chainsaws lopped off each limb that protruded, and mighty jaws lifted the giant on board a truck headed for the mill.

Inside there was more shaping. The debarker whined and bucked as it sliced through branch stubs and reduced them to submissive knots. Layer after layer of bark and outer wood were peeled back until the trunk was naked and smooth. Its base was plunged into a vat of burning creosote and preservative forced into its pores with unremitting pressure. With the procedure complete, the new telephone pole was stacked with other poles on yet another truck. One day it would be unceremoniously dropped on the side of the road. It would be an ignomious end to a great thing! If it could have had thoughts, I’m sure this would not have been the end envisioned from the place on the mountain where it once flourished.

Perhaps your life hasn't exactly gone as you had planned either. Here’s what I came to see from the telephone silhouetted against the sky: it had found a new meaning to its future that it had no reason to expect. This silent sentinel supporting the life-giving utilities along the road serves thousands, perhaps even millions of people. I know it is different for people. However, in some ways it is similar. Few trees aspire to be telephone poles, you know, but for many that is their destiny. I don’t know of many people who begin their lives with any failure in mind! The difference is at the point of pain. Often we can feel only pain and loss. We suffer. We hurt. We feel sorry for ourselves. But sometimes, if we can grasp it, God is creating for us a new and wonderful life through that which has died.

This is the principle at work in Jesus’ words in our reading today. Even when things seem to be going wrong, God’s work is never done. What you may have once thought about your life can be completely changed in a moment. He does have a wonderful plan for your life. Trust him for it.