We’ve had a couple of rough weeks. While it seems the initial crisis is over, the truth is, our lives took a ninety degree turn from the direction we thought we were going. We can never get back on that old road.
I have been reminded frequently in these two weeks that God’s plan is definitely NOT the same as my plan. My plan seemed to make sense. This new plan uses a completely different set of rules. Or maybe it uses no recognizable rules at all.
Just the weekend before all of this started we were happily working as a family on a book project with a fast approaching deadline. Randy hadn’t been feeling quite right physically but we didn’t see anything that would have been a red flag. He was tired at the end of the weekend, but then we all were.
Randy had just started his own business two weeks earlier. It has been the plan since we moved to Florida 15 months ago. The pieces were coming together and we were excited to finally see this dream taking shape.
Then the bottom fell out. Or so we thought.
What we thought was just some quirky health issues turned into a 12 day hospital stay and a diagnosis of cirrhosis that shattered our carefully laid plans.
One of the things we do as humans is that we project our present into our future without really knowing anything. We think we have an idea where we are going but we really don’t. And what we think the future looks like actually puts us in a box. It makes us stop looking for other avenues and possibilities. It makes us get comfortable with our little picture and how it’s supposed to look.
As the days in the hospital began to stack up, I had a lot of time to just sit and think while I watched my very sick husband sleep. One of the things I realized is that what we thought was an illness that threatened to shut down the business before it even got started is really opening the door to new possibilities that we hadn’t even thought of before. God keeps showing us things from a completely different angle than we had been looking before.
It has made me think of the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis(Chapters 37-50). All the terrible things that happened to Joseph, God used for good. And God knew ahead of time that all of it would happen. He had a plan that no one else could see.
So at this point in our new journey, we are holding on to that scripture that everyone likes to quote.
“For I know the plans I have for you”–this is the LORD’s declaration–“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (HCSB)
It has new meaning for us now. We can look to the future and remember that God is already there. He has already made provision to get US there too.
Is God up to something in your life that doesn’t look like you expected it to? Take a deep breath and just trust Him. He knows exactly what He’s doing.