Our Plans and His Purpose

Have you ever had an unexpected change of plans? (If you are alive and reading this right now, chances are that this has recently happened to you and you are currently rolling your eyes at me for even asking.)

If you’re anything like me, you don’t like when that happens. It feels bad, even sad, and sometimes makes you angry. It can seem unfair, and even mean. Like the universe is conspiring against you.

I have a child that, when something bad happens to her (usually a barfing illness or some kind of injury), she will passionately declare amid her tears “I wish this never happened to me!!”

And I am sure many of us would whole-heartedly agree.

Take for instance, this past week. Jimmy and I were going to GA to spend a week with dear friends at

a missions conference. I was looking forward to fellowship, and hearing the Word. I was also looking forward to time alone with my handsome hubby [nudge-nudge, wink-wink], but turns out my shoulder was injured. Like crazy painful. Like I cried more than once, and I'm not a cryer. (For reference: I burned my eye with a curling iron in 8th grade and didn't cry.)

So I was on meds and resting the first two days at the conference, and didn't see anyone. No fellowship for me. Fun fact: you also can't do 'honeymoon stuff' with an arm screaming in pain.

Was it disappointing? Um, yes.

But the reason why my arm was in pain was totally a God thing. [Jimmy and I had stopped in Ohio when an older woman flagged us down. Turns out she had fallen and could not get up on her own. (Yes, just like the commercials but it's not funny in real life.) I pulled something in my arm while helping her, but didn't feel the effects of it until two days later, and ended up in urgent care unable to move or use my dominant arm.]

Since helping the woman off the ground, I have been praying for her. Before that moment, I didn't even know she existed. I have since written her a long note in a card and mailed it with a Gospel tract, offering to send her Bible studies since she said her son could no longer bring her to church. I am hoping she will write back to me, and we can at least become pen pals.

There have been countless circumstances throughout my life where I plan one thing, and God changes it. He allows a monkey wrench in my oh-so-carefully laid plans, and then I am faced with a choice: will I trust that God is good and has a purpose for this change of plans, or will I, like a child, cry and proclaim in utter disappointment "I WISH THIS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME!!!"?

See, when we're busy counting all the things we don't get to do, or all the ways we've been disappointed, when we're keeping track of how things got 'messed up' in our plans, we're looking down at our fingers or at an ever-growing list in a notebook, and we miss the opportunities that God places in front of us that would make sense of the interruption if we would just look up.

Yes, some happenings will never come again. Graduations, weddings, birthdays, parties and celebrations- many of these are once-off experiences you just can't recreate. I totally get that- I have missed plenty of them too. (Hello, I lived in Africa away from my family for 12 years. We've missed a lot of stuff.)

But can I encourage you to look for the once-off opportunities that God is bringing your way to be the hands and feet of Jesus that could not have happened if your plans had gone on un-interrupted?

Can I encourage you to seek to delight yourself in Him so that you won't be rocked so hard when life (or even moments) don't turn out the way you think they should?

God is always kind. He always has a purpose. He will always work for your good and His glory. Always. Even (and maybe especially) when things don't go your way.

Proverbs 16:9
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Psalm 37:3-4
(3) Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
(4) Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Psalm 18:30-33
(30) As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
(31) For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
(32) It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
(33) He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places.

Jeremiah 29:11-13
(11) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
(12) Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
(13) And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.