Plans.
We make them. We keep them. We break them. We are informed of them. We look forward to them. We dread them.
I remember years ago making plans to go away to college and pursue a degree in education. Instead, God interrupted my plan with a man and a hard right turn. I landed a great job which led me to schooling in a completely different field which resulted in a great career.
More recently, my plans have been interrupted by way of a cancer diagnosis in my mom nearly two years ago. As my adult children were leaving home, my plans were to have more frequent shopping and lunch dates with my mother and take a trip or two to visit far away relatives. Instead, we spend time together at doctor’s appointments, crossing T’s and dotting I’s on a plethora of paperwork and relaxing on the back porch of her beautiful piece of land.
The way we spend our time together now…I’ll take it! But, it’s not what I thought we would be doing together had you asked me a couple of years ago.
In each of these times in my life I had a choice on how I would respond to the shifts and shoves.
The shift to change my career path so that I could be with my man sooner was easy.
The shove of making any time planned with my mom fenced in my doctor’s appointments and recovery times…not so much.
But, I still get to choose how I respond and my response is rooted in the One that I know loves me more than anyone else ever would or could.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
When our circumstances begin to shift or shove us, we won’t always understand in the moment the what or why. We may not even understand it when it’s all said and done. It’s times like these that we cling to our faith and trust that God knows what He is doing, and what He is allowing to come our way.
We cling to what we know.
We know that God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31).
He has plans for us and they are good (Jeremiah 29:11).
He supplies all of our needs (Phillippians 4:19).
We know these things are true because He didn’t just speak these things with words, He actually did something to demonstrate His love for us. He allowed the one thing that was priceless in His eyes to act as payment for you and me. He used His son as a bridge to bring us over into fellowship with Him.
Do we think that He would give over His son and then let our circumstances just blow around in the wind?
No! He has way too much invested in us to just shrug His shoulders and sit back.
That addiction, that divorce, that unplanned move across country, that friend that dropped out of your life, that health issue you never saw coming, that unplanned pregnancy…the sudden windfall of financial blessing, the new job you were just offered, the debt that disappeared unexpectantly, the healing that took place in your body, the reconciliation you experienced with your wayward teen…you may have never seen any of this coming.
These weren’t necessarily in your plans.
As our scripture says, His ways are not our ways. If we will accept that, we will be able to not just deal with the shifts and shoves, but experience them, be fully present through them, and make them count for something.
When things aren’t going quite as we had planned, let’s loosen our grip and allow God to do His thing. Scary? Yes! But can we trust Him? You bet!
What about you? What is it that you may be missing out on because you’re working so hard to squint your eyes and turn your head just right in order for your own picture to come into focus? What is your response when you see your plans shift or get shoved in a different direction?
Sometimes handing God what we think is best results in Him handing back to us something even better.
My career change and young marriage sent me on a trajectory I could’ve never imagined for myself…and the conversations my mom and I have now are more intimate and deep than we would’ve ever had while antiquing and sipping latte’s.
He’s good ya’ll.
Let’s choose to trust Him when life gets interrupted. He just might blow our socks off if we will lean close and look for the blessings.
Simple Faith 
Amen!
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