Trusting The Plans
If you know me personally, you know I am a planner to a fault. I like to make plans and stick to plans and adjust plans as needed, but, no matter what, there has to be a plan. I plan what I wear, what I eat, what I teach, what I want to do for fun, when I go to the gym; I even plan when I do my laundry (every Thursday, in case you were wondering). Having a plan is all well and good until it is not. It is great until things stop going according to plan and I realize I actually have no control in life. I was reminded of this over the last week as it was my fall break from school (I am a teacher). I had made plans over a month ago of how I would spend my time - what rooms to organize when, books to read, things to do, etcetera. Then fall break got here and my life looked a lot different than it did when I made those plans, making the completion of those plans on my own timeline nearly impossible. I also was reminded of how little control we have when a sweet friend lost her job recently. Out of nowhere, she went to work one day and left work without a place to go back to the next day. Now it has been about a month and she is still without a job and feels a little lost because her life is not going according to her plans. Once again, the control does not belong to who it seemed it did.
One thing I can almost guarantee all of us have in common is that our grief did not come upon us by our own plans and we do not walk in it and experience it by ways we have planned and anticipated. Some of us may have expected grief to be coming by knowing a loss was coming, and others may have had it sprung on us out of nowhere with sudden loss and no anticipation. Loss alone is one area where our plans are simply never good enough.
Secondly, walking through the never ending grieving process, we can not control what emotions we face and how we will face them. We do not get to choose how long we feel a certain way or what small things will impact us in big ways. We can plan all we want, but grief itself is another reminder that we are not the ones in control.
So, as I have been pondering on this recently, it has reminded me of the truth that, while we are important and do matter, we are just small pieces of a much bigger puzzle. Our ultimate purpose is to glorify and honor God in all we do. That is all we need to plan for. We know from Jeremiah 29:11 (“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 a hope and a future.”) we have the hope and future of Heaven. With that as the ultimate plan, we can rest in knowing all of our plans on earth that are not for the purpose of glorifying Christ are ultimately meaningless. Is it wrong to have fun and plan fun things? No. Is it wrong to live by a schedule and enjoy knowing when you will do laundry? No. With that being said, I am hopeful we can find our joy this week in knowing that things will be okay, even when they do not go according to plan, because we know Who has the ultimate plans. All we have to do is trust in Him and trust His plans. Let us do that this week; let us choose to take every obstacle this week throws and embrace it with generosity, trusting the plans He has for us, even when they may not be the plans we would have for ourselves.
