31 Mar Best Laid Plans
Last week, a sweet friend sent me a Facebook post, written by an author who described how her plans for her upcoming book launch and numerous speaking engagements had been cancelled. Her words revealed the disappointment, the grief, the sense of loss. Yet it also expressed the truth of God’s goodness, despite all the discouraging moments we may be experiencing these days.
I have been facing some of my own disappointments, but this one in particular stands out for me. On April 25th, I was to graduate with my seminary degree, something that I have been working towards for what seems since the beginning of time! Even more exciting, I was going to graduate alongside my daughter and son-in-law. I was finally going to walk across the stage and get that paper in hand. But now graduation has been postponed until further notice. More waiting, and waiting.
No doubt, many of you have been experiencing changes or delays in your plans that are even more life-altering than mine. Surgeries. Weddings. Adoptions. Other significant family and life events. We live our days, believing that everything we fill our schedules with will come to fruition, as good as they might be.
But only one thing is true in this life. God’s plan cannot be thwarted and He still controls it all.
When Job sat in a mire of despair, with family, home, and possessions all lost, he clung to the hope that rested in the God of his salvation. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:2-3). Even at the time Job spoke these words, he had no idea that God would restore his life to twice as much as he had before. But He still trusted because He knew that God’s plans were exceedingly above his human comprehension.
So, in these days of uncertainty, it’s alright to feel disappointment, grief, and even a sense of loss at what is not to be. Days that were to be filled with celebration now resemble quiet moments at home. Delays in some things that are necessary for our well-being may leave us asking “what next?” We may be experiencing postponements or cancelling our plans altogether.
Yet in the midst of it all, do we keep trusting in the goodness of God and placing our hope in God’s perfect plan for those who love Him? Like Job, do we tell the Lord that we do not understand, but we rest in the knowledge that He is God and He is good? Do we place our sadness, fears and doubting at His feet, and pray for joy, peace and grace instead?
We may be grieving those things that, for today, are not meant to be. Even the normalcy of our lives has suddenly been stripped away. Yet, it is in times like these when God is calling us to look to Him, come to Him, believe in Him, and have faith in Him, no matter what. Despite what tomorrow holds for each of us, as children of God, may our hearts and hope echo these words.
“I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand on the earth” (Job 16:25).
Even if we do not know what the future holds, may we live in the promise of knowing who walks with us moment by moment, day by day. And nothing will happen that is outside of His sovereign care for those who place their confidence in Him.
