I had a great time with God this morning. The hotel room is quiet; I have a diet Pepsi at my side…and God was speaking (and perhaps more importantly…I was listening). I am currently walking through the book of Jeremiah and reading Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning. This morning they came together.

Manning was talking about how often we treat “life like as a series of disconnected episodes” with no meaning or value to them. But nothing could be further from the truth. We are just looking in the wrong place for the meaning and value (or ignoring it altogether after a lifetime of disappointment):

The dark riddle of life is illuminated in Jesus; the meaning, purpose, and goal of everything that happens to us, and the way to make it all count can be learned only from the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

All day and every day we are being reshaped into the image of Christ. Everything that happens to us is designed to this end. (Abba’s Child, page 108).

Life is about being transformed into the image of Christ. Life is not a mistake of circumstances. Life doesn’t just happen. It is designed and used by God with our best interests at heart. And Jeremiah understood this. In the midst of God railing about the destructive influence of idols, Jeremiah prays this prayer:

I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own.
We are not able to plan our own course.
So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle.
Jeremiah 10:23-24a, NLT

That is my prayer this morning. I know God is at work changing me into His image. And it’s hard work…I’m stubborn and thick-headed. I want Him to correct, change, and transform me. I just pray that He will be gentle in doing it and that I will be more aware of the intentionality of His purpose in my life. Life is NOT haphazard. God is using my life to change me…gently.