The Unplan

 

Yesterday I planned to work on a bible study I’ve entitled “How to Un-plan Your Life”.   Instead I  spent a good portion of the afternoon vacuuming the living room (where my daughter had shattered one of my favorite vases) and running errands I hadn’t planned on needing to run; I wasn’t happy about it.  It’s easy to write about how to unplan your life (and live it with a smile) it’s a lot harder to do it.  

 

In the midst of the shattered glass pieces from my favorite vase the Holy Spirit reminded me of something; it’s not my life anyway it’s God’s.  I’ve lost more than a vase in life, I’ve lost a child.  It wasn’t part of my plan.  Sometimes what I have planned for my life isn’t actually  God’s plan for me, at times I’m less willing than others to let go of my plans.

 

The daughter I do have is prone to engaging in the battle of the wills with me; when she loses the battle she falls apart.  She falls apart not because it’s painful to wait until after lunch to eat cookies, she falls apart because it’s painful to have one’s will violated.  How I want my daughter to grow up, to stop whining every time she doesn’t get her own way.  How I wish I would do the same.   

We dream of a better tomorrow.  We plan for it, hope for it, work for it.  But sometimes tomorrow comes and it’s not better.  In the sadness of sin and the bitterness of  brokenness, God offers us the gift of grace and  the joy of hope.   The gift of grace is just that, a gift; I can’t earn it or stash it away, I simply have to trust it, accept it and receive it.   Sometimes I worry that God’s grace is not going to be sufficient.  That’s like worrying that I’m going to go to bed a person and wake up a light pole, God’s grace being insufficient isn’t a real possibility.   When I’m down and out my hope is, that circumstantially,  tomorrow will be a better day; but even if circumstantially, tomorrow is not a better day, I still have hope that by His grace I can embrace the plan.  When I talk about unplanning my life, I don’t mean I’m throwing my planner away; rather I mean that when the unplanned comes my way I’m learning to allow  the Spirit will help me roll with the punches.  Actually  I’m hoping to do more than just roll with the punches, I’m hoping to learn to sail. 

 

“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way ; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.”  Psalm 37:23 (ESV)