"I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future," the Lord said in Jeremiah 29:11 and it should beckon all including non-believers to Christ . No one else could make such a promise. No one else could keep such a promise! And the Lord, for those who don't know, always keeps His promises.

In a day and age when most people worldwide are looking for clues to their future, suggestions of what to do to improve their lifestyle and avoiding missteps and wrong decisions, this beautiful statement of hope can be the foundation of guidance.

I'm amazed it's not first on anyone's to do list!

I listened to college students for more than four decades as they told me about their mistakes, excused themselves of responsibility by blaming others for their listlessness and lack of direction. In some instances, they blamed the very people who tried to help. Few mentioned God and, because of the nature of my role as an academic adviser, I was cautioned not to touch the subject or create problems for myself and them. While most of what I talked to them about was career advice and simply conjecture in response to their comments, administrators at private and state universities made all of us wary of venturing into discussions that were religious in tone and scope. It could be a fatal career step, one told me. Imagine what could happen if your comments are taken out of context was the warning. There are court cases past and present to document such troubles. Another suggested I was looking for trouble with a big T.

Looking back, I feel I let fear keep me from suggesting one of the best weapons any young person could have had in conquering such matters; a relationship with the Lord as shown in Jeremiah. Why?

I was young, too, and I was anxious to prove my worth and to please the superiors I worked for. Of the colleges where I worked, one president was an agnostic who wanted us to counsel by the college rule book not the Bible, another was clearly Christian but fearful of civil rights violations at a time when campuses were raw from such complaints and a third, a wonderful Christian man, was also hesitant to cross the line because he was several years from retirement.

Thus, my answers to student inquiries rarely included Jeremiah's advice. I'm sorry about that.

I know that the Lord has all the answers we need if we include him in our mind and heart and discussions. Sometimes, He helps by planting the thoughts of others to help us. Occasionally, we find His answers through random discussions with people we don't know. I have. Other times, we find a suggested path from the feedback we get without seeking advice.

Our lives, however, are frequently dominated by Satan (he thrives in a materialistic world bent on greed and self) and our answers reveal it without conscious realization. In other words I was guided by the world's approach to such questions and discourse; since it was about career and what lay ahead how could there be a hint or need to inject Christ into such a mix? However, He was already involved. I ignored Him without realizing that I was placing my thoughts and advice ahead on Him. I remember one student a few years ago who expressed his dismay when I told him that basically he was conjuring a career as a minister not as a journalist which was my specialty.

He became defensive and combative because he felt that I was demeaning his feeling of trying to do good while in the role of a journalist. I told him my reaction was that he was deceiving himself. I told him my experiences in trying to handle explosive community matters where I felt the duty was to deal with an issue objectively while I had doubt and feelings of distrust of the parties providing information. Fairness was my guide but frequently friends and members of the public felt I should reveal my doubts. I owed it to the readers, they said. It went against all my training It was a question that pursued me during my work in journalism education. It continues today although one look at what is offered as objective coverage is as false as Fox telling viewers it's news is "fair and unbalanced." Given time, internal constraints and reporter bias most stories of consequence need such warnings to alert the audience.

One of the reasons I have been much happier as a magazine writer than a "newsman" is the freedom to insert my views in stories and not feel the restraints that I once had. Magazines provide such a platform. Good newspapers don't allow it and edit to avoid it.

I do my best to go to the Lord today when doing a story regardless of its intent. I think most writers want such freedom but the commercial publishing, broadcast or video media don't function that way; they have their own constraints. There is still reader feedback and it should be used.

Yet you can't blame people for not wanting to share their most personal thoughts with a whole community. As communities get smaller and more reliant upon one another, however, you can't escape revealing how you feel orally and on paper. It's an era of powerful emotions and they need to be carefully articulated. Are you for or against abortion? Are you for or against same sex marriage? Are you for or against allowing sex offenders from living in your community? Let the Lord help you sort out what you feel and how to express it.

Comments? Write to Jbehrens13323@gmail.com.