He's Gotta Plan for You

On April 17, I finished my last day of “school” in order to receive my doctorate of physical therapy. I can tell you that I was relieved and excited to finally be finished with 7 years of college. Some of you know a little bit about how God has lead me down to southeast Ohio, but I would like to tell you the whole story so that you can see how God has a plan for each of you.

Several weeks ago, Pastor Randy preached about how God communicates with us. He mentioned that God rarely speaks directly in His voice to His people, but uses the Bible and other means to communicate His plan for our lives. With that being said let’s start my journey at my senior year at Cedarville University. My dream growing up was to play professional baseball, but as I got further into my baseball career no one from a professional team had contacted me. As much as I hated to admit it, at that time I knew my window for baseball after college was beginning to fade.

Throughout my senior year I was preparing and applying to several different universities in hopes of gaining my doctorate in physical therapy. School after school returned back letters to me saying that I had not been accepted except one. Wheeling Jesuit sent me a letter for me to be interviewed. One weekday I drove to Wheeling, went through the interview process, and started the waiting game. My thought process was that this was where God wanted me. I thought for sure that I would be continuing my education at Wheeling Jesuit. I found out that I was deep on their waiting list, and most likely not going to be able to be accepted into their program. Not only was I disheartened, but had some fear on what I was going to do next.

On one of my observations, there was a gentleman who was a physical therapy assistant (PTA) who graduated from Marshall. By now I was engaged to Steph, and we both wanted to live near her hometown…Marshall seemed to be a good alternative. I would become a physical therapy assistant, work on receiving better grades in a couple classes, and then become a physical therapist. Like I said before: God communicates with us by other means. I started going on Marshall’s website looking for how to apply for their PTA program, and unfortunately they discontinued it. But…they were starting a new doctorate of physical therapy program! I sent my transcripts and information, and went down for an interview. The rest as they say is history.

God has a plan for each and every one of you. If you listen carefully, pray, and be patient you will see what God wants you to do. I can say that it’s not easy waiting for what God has in store, and sometimes in order to see the light at the end of the tunnel we have to first go through the darkness.

Jeremiah 29:11

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For 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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Alex

Teen Leader/"Game Guy"