A change in plans

We suffer many afflictions in our earthly lives. We ache. We hurt. We get sick. We experience ailments and injuries. We despair. Few people can experience all those things or even a few of them without having some human thoughts of displeasure at what they are experiencing.

Scripture tells us to persevere through the trials that come our way. It tells us to give thanks for them.  That is a struggle in this life, no matter how deep our faith is, we still feel all the human…earthly…emotions of the flesh. It’s hard to give thanks for the misery we are suffering when we are too sick to lift our head off the pillow.

But give thanks we should. Because the Lord has allowed and even handed out the afflictions that we suffer from. He sends them our way so that we might grow in Him or for some other purpose that we can know nothing of.

Years ago I would become easily frustrated and upset at delays in my plans. If I knew I needed to go somewhere I would get upset at anything that slowed down my plans for getting there.

One night I was driving in a very large city, headed home after spending a day at a theme park with my family. I was tired and the hours were wearing on me. But I had made that same drive many, many times and could just about make my road changes without thought.

I was driving along when I realized that nothing around me seemed familiar. I drew the attention of those with me to that fact and they all agreed that nothing looked familiar. I had missed the road I needed to be on to get home. I couldn’t believe I had missed that road. I had driven that same path many times, had driven it in the dark. I knew where I was and where I was going. Even tired I shouldn’t have missed that road change. But I had.

Frustrated I pulled into a gas station…this was before GPS…and asked for directions. I was directed to continue on the road I was going as it would intersect with the road I needed to be on. Still frustrated I got back on the road and continued toward home, now in an area I was unfamiliar with.

The road I was on did eventually take me to the road I needed to be on. I hadn’t been on the right road for very long when traffic slowed to a standstill. As I inched along, stuck in traffic, my frustration grew. I was tired. I wanted to be at home. I wanted to sleep.

Slowly I made my way down the road until I came upon a very bad car accident. Traffic was being routed onto the shoulder where we had to squeeze past the accident.

All of a sudden my frustration disappeared. I was still tired. Still wanted to be at home. My day had still been long and it was early morning hours but…I understood what I hadn’t before. The accident I had been slowly inching my way around had most likely happened right about the time I would have been in that same area had I not missed my road change.

The missed road that had so frustrated me…the road I should not have missed…the road change I had made too many times to count in the past…quite likely kept us out of that accident.

It was then that I began to learn to take delays in my plans as being something that the Lord uses to keep us safe.

One weekend I had plans that I did not want to miss but family illness kept us home when I would have chosen something else. I don’t know the reasons but I can speculate that that may well have been the weekend we could have had a car accident or some other calamity. And illness may have been what kept us safe.

I don’t know that that is why we had the illness in our home that weekend, all I know is that there was a reason for it.

Just this past Thanksgiving we had plans to be with family, again an illness changed those plans. This time the illness wasn’t in our home but with the family we were going to spend the holiday with. But because of that illness our plans were changed.

I don’t know what the reasons were for the illness or the plans that needed to be changed. It doesn’t matter what the reasons were. All I need to know is that…

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:9  ESV

I made plans but the Lord directed my steps. That is all I need to know about the reasons for the changes in my plans.

But I wasn’t always able to look at life like that. There was a time I would have been frustrated with those changed plans. Now I understand that the Lord is directing my life, He is working it out as He wants it to be and though I don’t always like the things He sends my way I know that He has a reason for it.

And because I understand that, I know that all of my afflictions come at the hand of my Lord.  I may not always be able to find happiness in the midst of trials. I may not rejoice at the troubles that come my way. I may not even be able to remember to give thanks for those things which cause me discomfort, misery, or pain, but I do know that those afflictions are given to me by my Lord and that in His great mercy those afflictions will be worked for my good. No matter how much I don’t like experiencing them.

So many times in life we want to cry out to be rescued from our afflictions…so many times we do that very thing. But for those that understand the Lord controls all…those afflictions take on a new meaning.

It is in that understanding that a believer gains strength amidst the afflictions and the sufferings they endure. The believer in Christ suffers in this earthly life, falters from time to time, but it is in their understanding of the Lord’s sovereign control of all that they are able to triumph through the many afflictions that come their way.
            Sooner or later, the child of Christ will remember that their beloved Lord controls all that that He is working all out for their good. They will remember that their affliction was planned by their Lord for a purpose that they can’t know but they can know that that affliction will be used for their good to the glory of their Lord.

That is a hard lesson to learn and takes growing much in Christ to understand and embrace.

It is much like the change in plans that kept my family home when we wanted to spend the holiday with family. It is also much like the missed road that quite possibly kept my family out of an accident.

We had plans that made perfect sense and shouldn’t have had any reason to need to be changed. But the Lord saw things differently and He changed those plans according to His will and plans. He took control of our earthly plans and changed them in keeping with His eternal plans.

We don’t always see the reasons for the change. Sometimes it may be to keep us from a car accident or any other experience that isn’t in the Lord’s plan. Or may be to put us somewhere we wouldn’t have been if our plans had succeeded. Even an illness is generally a change in our plans because few people ever plan to become sick.

And so, hard as it is, we should always try to embrace the changes in our lives because a change in our plans is the Lord directing our steps and keeping us within His eternal plans.