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Make No Little Plans Here

It was the December of my senior year in high school, and I thought that I had made “no little plans.” My acceptance letter to ORU came through the mail a few months prior and I started the process of selecting a major. All that stood between me and driving past the Praying Hands towards my new home was my high school diploma.

And, oh the magnificent plans I had once arriving on campus! I would decorate my dorm room, journal in the prayer gardens and maybe even meet a good-looking, God-fearing boy. My greatest plan of all – shake the hand of the man that made it all possible.

But on December 15, 2009, I lost a piece of my plan, when I turned on the news and heard Oral Roberts had crossed the threshold of heaven.

Chancellor Roberts and I never met. But since I’ve been at ORU, I’ve been blessed by the fruit of his labor. I get the opportunity to study at the university he built, to walk around the upper balcony of the prayer tower where he prayed for me, to sit in Studio One of the Mabee Center each Sunday for church where he hosted his television specials – his closing ling still an encouragement today: “Something good is going to happen to you.”

Something good has happened to me, and that’s credited in part to Oral Roberts.

During my second year studying Church Administration at ORU, God revealed to me the fullness of his plans for my life. My plans evolved from getting a degree to changing my world. My new plan is to follow Robert’s in the world of broadcasting. I dream of someday producing high quality media that opens people’s eyes. Media that causes a generation to see the goodness and grace of God. Media that evokes a change in the cynicism of this age. I want my generation to receive God’s faithfulness through television and film.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever see the dreams that God has placed in my heart come to pass. When that worry comes, I remember the plaque that sat atop Oral’s desk for many years: Make no Little Plans Here. And God reminds me why I shouldn’t worry and discredit my plans – because my plans are His plans. And his plans are not little.

Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; Philippians 1:6

So on this “throwback Thursday,” I choose to honor you, Oral Roberts. You embraced God’s big plans, and the world will never be the same. My world will never be the same. And by the grace of God, my plans will never be little.

Mary Harp

GEB America Intern

ORU Yearbook Editor-In-Chief