Our day began at 4 A.M. this morning. At 6 A.M. I dropped my wife off at the Manchester NH airport for a not-so-long flight to Nashville, Tenn. At 8 A.M. she called me from a bus on her way to Boston. The plane in New Hampshire was leaking fuel. At 1 P.M. she called from Cincinnati while waiting for a plane to Detroit. At 6 she called from Detroit waiting for a flight to Nashville that would not leave until 9 P.M. Hopefully someday this week she will make it to Tennessee.
I believe it was Robert Burns who wrote something about the best laid plans of mice and men. I sometimes smile at young people who have their entire lives laid out with college, internships, residencies and careers. Does it ever work out the way we planned or dreamed? There is this thing called life that persistently interferes and says, “No, this way.” Accidents, illnesses, career breakers are not the sole property of a few. Even though we are praying and God longs to answer our prayers bad things do happen to good people. Then there is the reverse. Good things burst into our lives filling us with more joy than we could have imagined. It is the stuff of life. We can treat the random events as an adventure or allow them to ruin the journey.
Sometimes the plan we have for our lives is so very different from God’s plan for us and we interfere and cause Him to switch to Plan B. Then we interfere with His Plan B and cause Him to go to Plan C. But the joy of it is knowing He is there caring and doing His best to lead. If only we would follow. See Psalm 23.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2012
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org