Of Plans and and Curves and Monkey Wrenches.

   

Sometimes, despite all forethought, and despite all planning, monkey wrenches get thrown at you. Unexpected events, both good and bad, occur and make curves in your path, curves and bumps you never could have seen. When you're driving down life's road and hit a pothole, run over a speed bump, or come up on a curve you didn't know was there, you needn't be discouraged. You needn't get upset. Although the bump or curve or speed bump may tweek your plans, completely change your course, or just shake you up a bit, you can have faith that our God knows the plans he has for you and that all things work together for good for those who love him and find their purpose in Him.

    I've had a plan once or twice. I've had a plan foiled once or twice as well. Most recently, I had a plan to live in a little one bedroom apartment with my newlywed husband indefinitely. I had a plan to be perfectly content there just the two of us. Then I took a pregnancy test that positively changed all that.

So...I made a plan to live in a little two bedroom apartment indefinitely,  just the three of us. I had a plan of how we'd make ends meet. It'd be tight, and it'd be hectic, but I figured we could do it. We'd have to pass the baby back and forth as we passed each other heading out the door, and we'd need a babysitter, but it was a plan and I figured it would work. Then, the phone rang and a different plan unfolded. We left our jobs for a different one. We left our big town for a smaller one, and our little house for a larger one. We left a place where we knew a few people to a place where we didn't know anyone.

After that, I no longer had a plan. Despite my forethought and careful thinking, everything I thought I figured out, I'd figured up all crooked and didn't know it. So. I gave it up, and said, "Hey God, you have better ideas don't ya?"

Sure enough, He did.

All along, God had a plan that didn't quite match mine, but all along his plan was better. He had a plan for a doctor to hand me a baby I didn't expect and say "Congratulations! You're a mother!"  He had a plan to make a home for the three of us that was more than we could have ever asked for. He had a plan to put us where we could better be in his service. He had plan with new friends already in it, new friends that were waiting when we arrived. He had a plan I couldn't see, but he had a plan that was not only better, but best.

     I can say with confidence, that my God knows the plans he has for me, and his plans are for the best. His plans are intended not for harm, but for good. His plans bring hope and a bright future. I also know that even though monkey wrenches may be thrown me, even though things may happen that I don't expect, my God is bigger. My God works all things together for good. He controls ALL things, good and bad, and I can trust that no matter what, eventually He'll pan everything out. He'll pan everything out like a gold miner panning for gold in a stream, and when he's finished, all I'll see is gold.


 " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' "  Jeremiah 29:11 


"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28