“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:13-14

I was hoping that the weather would break and that heat and humidity would finally be gone before I tackled the tree and bush trimming job. But alas… no! The time had come, it was muggy and hot and I had run out of excuses. Without thinking I pulled on my work clothes and headed off, with no particular plan but to cut! When I got to it, I wondered, “where are my tools?”

Being an owner of foliage in Florida is full of frustration because this place was a ‘tropical rain forest’ LONG before I came! That means plants trees and shrubs just GROW! Eradicating them requires work and tools. Looking thorough the garage I found 1 tool and so, started with it. Lopping and filling trash cans, I stored 5 of them in the garage to be set out on trash day. Needing my chain saw, I then remembered… ‘it’s behind the trash cans!’

‘Plan your work and work your plan,’ is a popular saying for organized types. Since ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ are two different things, and that planning doesn’t come naturally for me, it usually takes more time and sweat to accomplish things I don’t like to do… like tree trimming! Oh… if could only learn that! Then I read these teeter-totter verses this morning.

I am a captive to my OWN way of living. Being flesh, I have learned what I like and what I don’t. I have even discovered substitute behaviors that provide me with brief spurts of ‘happy’ to get me through tough times. Because I love these substitutes, I rarely see them as captors to which I am enslaved! BUT… God sees them… and has a plan for my life that RIDS me of ALL captors… but Him. He even tells me what to DO to eradicate the fake stuff. Now… if could only learn them!

Picture a teeter totter with “You will seek me and find me” on one side. And “I will be found by you,” on the other. While they are actually 2 separate verses, they pivot on the words, “when you seek me with all your heart.” ‘Seeking’ and ‘finding’ are 2 separate things that require WORK on MY part. The WORK is the ‘HEART’ effort I put into the search. Often, that effort requires I move some trash out of the way.

God has a plan for my life. I have to work HIS plan if I want to have it. I guess the inevitable question is… how badly do I REALLY WANT to find Him? And how badly do YOU?