Not Always the Plan...

Have you ever had something not go according to your plan? It can definitely be frustrating to watch a seemingly perfect plan crumble before your eyes.

There's always a lot of planning involved when you're going away on a vacation or trip. I would know because right now, I'm in the middle of planning my vacation I'm taking over the summer. It may be six months away, but there's a lot of preparation involved - I have to book my flight, find somewhere to stay, and rent a car all before I go away. When traveling, there's always the chance that something can change. It might change before you leave. It could even change as you're already traveling. I took this same trip last year, and thankfully there wasn't too much that changed on me. When I got to the airport to fly back home, my flight ended up being delayed by about twenty minutes, maybe a little more. All in all, it wasn't too big of a change. I still got home at a reasonable time, and everything else went according to plan. If my flight was delayed by an hour or two, that would have radically changed my plans I had previously made. My sister and her children were going to pick me up from the airport. If my flight was anymore delayed than it was, they wouldn't have been able to do it because it would have been too late for the kids to stay up. I also would have been stuck at the airport with nothing to do for a few hours when I could have potentially been doing something else. I'm very thankful it didn't end up happening that way. Here's to hoping it all goes smoothly again this year.

Like traveling, we make big plans for ourselves in this life. We're going to be married by a certain age, have x amount of children, drive this specific car, live in that town we've always wanted to. Unfortunately, it doesn't always go as we planned. I planned to graduate college this year and be done with my educational journey - but after realizing I needed to step back and take a break, I recognized that I wouldn't be graduating as planned. Was I disappointed that my plans had suddenly changed? You bet. Am I absolutely thriving now that I've taken a break from school? I certainly am. Sometimes, our plans seem perfect. There seems like there's nothing that could possibly change them. But if our plans don't match up with what God has planned for us, a sudden change is imminent. I was beyond upset with the decision to take a break, knowing that I was delaying my graduation and everything else I had already planned for myself, but now that I'm a month into this break I'm happy. I feel more at peace now than I did during the last year I've had at school. God knew exactly what I needed and prompted me to change my plans.

"We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." Proverbs 16:9

God has an exact plan for our lives. He knows exactly what He wants us to do and when we will step into that calling. Along the way, we might discover what our calling is. With this discovery, we might start planning things on our own. However, if these plans don't line up with God's plan, He will find a way to change them. It's hard to accept changes to things we had planned on for years, but sometimes it's for the better. I had always planned on graduating, working, saving up enough money, and fostering and/or adopting children of my own by the time I was 27 or 28. That seemed like a great plan when I was 18, even when I was 20. Now I'm a month shy of turning 25, and I honestly think this plan of mine is changing. The only thing for me to do is continue praying and watch where God leads me. I know that God's plan for my life is better than any plan I can make on my own. I pray that you can grow to feel this way, too, if you don't already. I encourage you to pray and ask God to give you the faith to trust His plan. We obviously don't know what God knows - it's not a big problem if you don't trust His plan right off the bat. You just need to grow your faith more, and learn that you can trust God with whatever He plans on doing.

One Bible story that showcases a man with a plan of his own is the story of Jonah. He was a prophet, always sharing messages from the Lord with those around him, and one day he got a message he didn't want to share. God asked him to go to Nineveh and tell them to turn from their wickedness. Do you know what Jonah did? He decided to go on a ship to Tarshish - which was the complete opposite direction from where God wanted him to go. Long story short, because of his disobedience Jonah had to jump off the ship he was traveling on into the ocean to stop it from wrecking in a terrible storm. From there, a big fish swallowed him right up and Jonah stayed in that fish for three days. During those days, Jonah asked God for forgiveness and said he would deliver the message. The fish immediately spit Jonah out, and Jonah quickly found his way to Nineveh to deliver the message from God. After hearing the message, the people of Nineveh decided they needed to change their ways. It was all easy going for Jonah after that, right? Wrong! Even though Jonah had obeyed God, he still expected Nineveh to get destroyed because of all they had done. Jonah actually became mad because God didn't destroy Nineveh. Jonah insisted on sticking to his own plan, hoping that Nineveh would meet its demise, instead of wanting what God wanted, a city turning from its wicked ways so it can seek God instead.

"I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope." Jeremiah 29:11

The crazy thing is that God had a plan for us before we were even a thought in our parents' minds. Having a plan set out for everyone before they existed is pretty amazing - something that truly only God can do. Not only did He already have a plan for us, but He also made sure that those plans were for our good. What kind of loving father would God be if He ultimately set us up for failure? Sometimes it seems that the path we're headed down is not going to end well. That can be because of one of two reasons - either we strayed from God's plan somewhere along the way or it just doesn't seem good for that season. While God plans all things to work together for our good (Romans 8:28), life isn't promised to be an easy walk through the park. God still lets us face challenges because He knows we will learn and grow from them. He will never give us something that is too much for us to bear - in the times where things seem to be getting harder, all we can do is trust in God to help us through. Look at Job. There was a man who had everything, but then the devil took it all away from him. What did Job choose to do in that season of his life? Still praise God and trust that He would get him through all that was happening. Sometimes it might seem hard to trust God, but He will always be there for us.

I don't know what you are currently facing in this life, but I pray you can trust God with whatever is going on. He most definitely has amazing plans for your life, even if it might not seem that way right now. If things don't seem to be going well, I encourage you to pray to God. Ask Him if what you're doing coincides with His plan for you. Also ask Him to strengthen your faith in Him if you feel like you aren't completely trusting His plan. Sometimes the prayers we don't want to pray - asking God where He is, saying that we don't exactly trust Him in this season, or we can't understand how a certain thing fits into His plan - are the prayers that God wants to hear. He wants us to be honest with Him, even if it's admitting we're not on the same page. He is an omniscient and omnipotent being - there is no way we can know every single part of God's plan. Sometimes all we need to do is ask Him for help. God will make sure you're on His path as long as you're willing to trust Him.