I Didn’t Really Plan This

I keep a pretty predictable schedule. I have to. My time and energy are like an eight-serving pie that must somehow serve 16. So I plan out my days in windows. Time to read my Bible and pray. Time to walk. Time to work. Time to shop. Time to cook. Time to clean. Time for family. Occasional time for fun. At the end of the day, I like to look back at a checked-off list. I don’t take well to interruptions. They’re not on my list.
Getting sick this past week was not on my list. A sense of dread came upon me as I felt it coming on. Not again, I thought. Didn’t I just go through this? Can’t I just move on with my life? So I tried. I kept going, I kept doing until I was gone and it was done. Creeping crud had prevailed.
I didn’t plan on spending most of Friday afternoon at the doctor’s office, and I certainly didn’t plan on spending all weekend in bed. I had things to do. However, I did plan on resuming work Monday – and I did – but I didn’t plan on waking up this morning regretting all I had done the day before. 
Plans are like that. You get it all figured out and everything falls apart. That’s kind of how life is. By this point in my life, my plans were to be a great Broadway star or famous novelist, depending upon at what age I made the plans. But it didn’t turn out like that. And that’s okay.
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails,” Proverbs 19:21 tells us. I’m not quite sure yet what God’s purpose is in my ongoing respiratory infections, but I can be assured He has one. He’s given me just a little glimpse lately.
I didn’t plan on getting a box in the mail the other day that contained a present from a dear friend, but I did. I didn’t plan on God actually hearing my prayers for provision over the weekend, but He did. I didn’t plan on getting a slew of college paperwork for my boys completed over the weekend when I could have been declared mentally incompetent, but I did. I didn’t plan on having this as my next topic, but here I am.
Sometimes our altered plans have a ripple effect. For instance, I didn’t plan on having to return to the grocery store this afternoon, but I did. And the lady in the very front parking place didn’t plan on slamming into a pedestrian as she zipped out of her spot, but she nearly did. And because she nearly did, I – after seeing her mortified and crying about almost killing me (a fate that would have put my respiratory complaints in perspective, I suppose) – knew to pray for this poor woman, who obviously is very stressed and distracted. That, or a contract killer for whom I proved too quick-footed.
“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future,’” Jeremiah 29:11 tells us. So we can trust that He will use all things “for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His good purpose” (Romans 8:28), meaning that all these seemingly pointless interruptions won’t go to waste. He has a purpose in them; just wait and see.
So what do we make of our plans? Do we bother, or do we just save ourselves the hassle? James, the unabashedly confrontational brother of our Lord, puts it succinctly: “Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15). That means that first we must acknowledge who really is in control. Then you actually have to surrender that control. Yeah, that’s right. Fork over that to-do list. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3). When our hearts abide in His, then our plans will align with His.
Does that mean we won’t have to endure interruptions? Not at all. But it does mean that we can endure them with peace and a confidence that nothing comes to us except by the hand of our good, wise, gracious and loving God.
I have a lengthy to-do list for tomorrow. I plan on being well enough to check it off. But if I’m not, I plan on counting it all joy – and dodging cars in parking lots. Most of all, I can’t wait to see what God has planned because His ultimate plan for me puts the sum total of mine to shame.

3 thoughts on “I Didn’t Really Plan This”

  1. Most of us tend to become really annoyed when the day doesn’t quite go our way. I know I’m guilty! Thanks for scriptural reminder that it’s not my plan by God’s plan that really matters.

    I’ve read some of your other posts, too. You do a wonderful job of integrating what God tells us in Scripture with everyday life. Thanks!