March 8, 2013 (Friday)
“For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 N LT)
I was called by the Lord to become a preacher of the gospel and I responded positively to that call as I began my senior year of high school. Before that, I aspired to become an architect. I took some architectural drawing classes in high school. Some of our assignments called for our designing a house.
This took place in the post-war years of the late 1940’s, so you might expect our designs to reflect that era. The back porches were disappearing and the front porches were becoming small roof-covered areas just large enough to allow shelter from the rain.
Gone were the big front porches that characterized country homes and made their way into the city earlier in the century. A new life style was emerging, in which people were pressed for time and busy outside the home. So there was no need for a place to gather leisurely with neighbors and family.
In place of the big front porch, the back yard patio was created. This was for cook-outs, little parties, and family gatherings. Every once in a while friends were invited, but no one just ‘dropped in” unannounced anymore.
The inside of our houses was just a conglomeration of rooms. The sophisticated designs of later homes had not yet arrived. I guess you would call our designs modified “shotgun” houses. On one side of a center wall was the living room, dining room and kitchen, and on the other side of the wall were the bedrooms and common bathroom. There was nothing wrong with the design, but homes built later on were different.
I’m sure I would have learned the different designs, and might have been successful as an architect, but the “Great Architect of the Universe” had different plans for me.
The Lord has a plan for your life. Are you building it according to His design?