Monday, October 8, 2012

Living In Plan B (or C or D or... Z???)

I have become a master in adapting to new circumstances.  Oh don't get me wrong - I often go kicking and screaming - but I manage to find contentment eventually.

Recently I was coming home from a late night shift.  I was tired and somewhat discouraged.  I kept thinking about the Sidewalk Sunday School ministry teams that worked hard all day to prepare for going out on the streets again while I spent my evening in a coffee shop... yeah...  As the night settled over Brooklyn and I navigated my way home through the weird smells and the distant sounds of arguments, police sirens, and many other noises I asked myself if that is what I signed up for.

Often times we find ourselves in the situations that do not look like the first choice.  They do not even remotely resemble the hopes and dreams we had for the future.  We look around asking ourselves how we ended up where we are and whether this is really all that life is about.

I remember the first time I felt that I was called to ministry.  I had great visions of international success, conferences, training, missions trips... It has not quite turned out how I had hoped.  I was wondering if God knew about this all along and maybe He's been working on my character or something.  After some years passed other things came into play.  I had to make the decision to leave full-time ministry (in the "American" understanding of that word).  I had a child who needed taken care of.  I had bills that needed to be paid.  And so now I work at a what you would call a "secular" job.  Even the "plan B" seemed unlikely at this point.  I felt like with every choice I made I moved farther and farther away from the original "plan A" that I had in mind.

Until I realized this one thing... There is no such thing as plan B... or C... or whatever... God knows every decision we had made and will make in the future.  He has crafted a beautiful plan for us that takes into consideration everything that happens to us.  I thought of a typical Sunday School story of Joseph.  I personally had told it so many times before.  A little boy with great dreams... slightly unwise at the time... a terrible turn of events... favor... prison... his life was taking all kinds of turns and none of them seemed to bring him any closer to his vision.

Do you feel like this sometimes?  Like what you hoped and dreamed for is getting farther and farther away from your reach?  If so - be encouraged by the story of Joseph.

Joseph did see his vision pass.  He might have wanted to avoid certain experiences (as we all would looking back at our own lives).  But God's grace had brought him through it all and at the end of that he could look upon his brothers with love and say, "So now it was not you who sent me here, but God".  (Genesis 45:8)

We know the end of Joseph's story but we do not yet see the end of ours because we're still living it out.

"The Lord will perfect that which concerns me."
(Psalm 138:8a)




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