messed up plans

I just have to say that I’m so encouraged that things don’t always go my way. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it’s something I’ve come to realize about life.

A couple weeks ago we made a quick trip to central PA. This week marks four years since we moved from Lewistown, where I was a youth pastor from 2003-2006. We were having a reunion with a group of our old “kids” from our youth ministry, who are now in college or even married! I talked with them about some of the things I’ve been learning since we left 4 years ago, and this was one of the biggest life lessons I’ve walked away with…

Life doesn’t always go as planned!

In fact, it seems as if the majority of my life is spent responding to things that have happened outside of my own plans! Whether these were plans I had growing up, while in college, plans I made a few years ago,or even plans I made just recently. It’s good to have goals and to make plans, but many times our plans don’t pan out. Or better yet, things we didn’t plan on happening end up taking over our lives! Whatever the case, doesn’t it seem like God messes up our plans a lot?

I feel like an essential part of my life is the response – how will I adjust or react to what God is doing in my life? Will I pout, throw temper tantrums, get angry or bitter, walk away from God, or just give up? Or will I recognize and embrace the truth and enormity of what God says in Jeremiah 29.11…

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

This is one of the “standard” verses used in Christian circles about God’s plan for your life, so you always run the risk of letting it run right through your ears without actually hearing it. But the brilliant thing about this truth is that GOD is the one giving me a future! HE is the one giving me a hope! It’s good to plan your work and work your plan, but ultimately God is the one giving me a sweet story to walk through. His thoughts toward me revolve around peace, not evil! He’s not bypassing my plans just to ruin my life, or to stick me with a terrible end to the story.

I’ve just come to realize that if all my plans came to fruition, I would probably be an utter mess right now. Seriously! I’ve figured out that when things don’t go the way I want, there’s probably a very good explanation for it, a better alternative. I might not get it at the moment, or even for a while, but God is a pretty incredible screenwriter – and director – and producer! He can put some amazing stories together — he can incorporate all the right scenes, the right angles, the right characters, at the right time, in the right place, and in the right light. And it will all look better in the end than what I could have put together myself.

I love that life is an adventure! Walking and living in faith can be such a beautiful, dangerous thing. I know the story’s not all about me, and I know I have someone I can trust who’s masterfully piecing together the moments of my life. That’s what it’s all about — when life doesn’t go as planned, will you get angry and frustrated, or will you trust the one who has a future and a hope to give you?