Each of the NFL’s 32 teams starts training camp with great optimism.  Nobody sets out to suffer through a miserable season.

Like a great story, however, we really won’t know what will happen until we can read the next page.  The 2006 season needs to unfold.  There will be surprises along the way.

Some of those surprises will be wonderful – like a little known back named Willie Parker erupting onto the scene.  Some of the surprises will be awful – like watching a team’s hopes buckle along with Carson Palmer’s knee.  Some of the surprises will bring a strange mixture of the two – perhaps a Brian Griese injury that affords Chris Simms an opportunity to shine.  To a great extent, the outcome of an NFL season will be dependent upon chance.  We won’t know the outcome until the season’s story has unfolded. 

Life is like this to some extent.  We really don’t know what will happen in our lives until we live the next page.  We can be sure that there will be surprises – some good, some bad.  And we know that life’s surprises can bring about tremendous changes in our plans.  There is a difference, however.  The stories of our lives are not left to chance.

“I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” These were the words God spoke to His followers in exile years ago.  These are the words He speaks to His followers today.

God is the great Author who composed this story we find ourselves in.  He’s the one who gave you and me roles to play, and who entered us into His epic in just this specific scene.

He is the God who promises, “You will call upon Me and I will listen to you”.  Further, He says, “You will find Me when you seek me with all your heart”.

Here’s hoping (no, praying) that this season will be one in which each of us will seek after the Author and Finisher of this great epic with all our hearts.  For He assures, “I will be found by you.”

Today’s Text: Jeremiah 29:10-14