Making Plans

     I am so grateful for the wonderful, inspiring people with whom I am privileged to share time. I love hearing their random insights and inspirations and am so thankful for their willingness to speak about them. I was with some friends recently on an outing when such an instance came about. 
    To begin with let me mention that I have a history of going on outings with groups of friends that go in any direction except the one we planned. For example, we once visited three restaurants in search of breakfast and finally settled on having lunch at the fourth (Whataburger!). We've traveled to tourist destinations in time to face locked doors and a "Closed" sign. Once we tried around ten motels and hotels before finding accommodations for night. I think you get the idea. I'd decided that my outings were doomed to have glitches and failures.
    The other day we went on an outing with little to no plan other than visiting a certain coffee shop. We stopped at stores we saw along the route if they looked interesting (books, antiques, and shoes!) Instead of deciding ahead of time on a restaurant, we turned to Google Maps to find out what was near us. The day was completely relaxed and enjoyable. "Maybe that's how it works," someone speculated, "if you don't make a plan things work out better."
    So true! Many times I make a plan for my life, plotting the coordinates to decide where I would like to be at what time. My dismay when it doesn't work out is complete every time. Frustrated at my own attempts to hold things together, it doesn't take long to start losing my peace with God. 
    The hardest thing to do is probably what I should do: step back and let go. When I submit completely to the future God is working on and quit trying to make it fit into my ideas I find rest. My frustration is abated and I can begin to enjoy what is given me. No, it is likely not the adventure I would have planned for myself, but the complete peace of knowing God is in control remains unparalleled. 
    God's plan opens doors rather than letting me arrive to find them locked. In His care, I will have a bed when I need one without trying numerous places with no rooms available. And He will never leave me hungry and thirsty. 
    As I look back over my life I can see how relinquishing my ideas to God's will has been a blessing. It is an encouragement to see my elders who have spent their entire lifetimes in the faith and practice of submission and can now say with the Psalmist that I have been young and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
    I know I have a long ways to go, but it is my desire to learn more of the beauty of submission and to let go of my plans. Not only the big plans, but also in the tiny challenges of everyday life. The abrupt trip to town when I wanted to stay home, the little inconveniences like sharing a washer and dryer or a bathroom with someone else, my ideas about where and how something should be done. Learning to submit doesn't mean these things won't happen at all, but learning to live by God's plan rather than my own will give me the ability to gracefully reschedule my day. 
    Proverbs 16:9 summarizes it nicely: A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. It is there, in the direction of the Lord that peace is found, not in the carefully laid plans of my own heart. May each of us ever learn to walk closer to Him.