Best-Laid Plans
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.”
JAMES 4:13
We all know that our plans don’t always go the way we expect them to. For example, recently I was sitting in an airplane, listening to the couple in front of me. They were upset, and with good reason. They had been delayed getting through security and missed their connection, which caused them to lose a day of their vacation in Mexico. Now they were sharing their experience with anyone who would listen. “We have to get a hotel when we land and wait until tomorrow to make our connection.” You could tell they were trying to have a good attitude about it, but finding it hard to accept any kind of positive spin.
Such occurrences are just a fact of life. We’ve all made plans and watched them collapse around us. Those are the times we need to leave space for God in our lives. He always has a reason when he disrupts our plans, but he won’t necessarily share that reason with us. A traffic tie-up, an unplanned phone call, or a missed connection is very often God’s doing, even if it ruins our own carefully laid plans.
I don’t know if that couple on my flight will have a God moment as a result of a long TSA line, but I know this: If God decides to mess with our plans, get ready. He will almost surely have something better planned for our day.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, order my day, direct my steps, make my plans conform to yours. I long to do your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
