Set in stone. I chose this OPI color for my toes when I finally went for a pedicure to soothe my tired, working feet last weekend. I’m a sucker for the names of the polish and must admit, I make my selection based more on the name than the actual color. I made this choice for the sake of laughter, considering my life and its plans are and have been far from “set in stone” for well over a year now.
If you’ve read anything I’ve written, it will not come as a surprise that I am a planner. I like to have a plan for seemingly everything, including the steps of exactly how to achieve that plan with excellence. I still hear the words ring in my ears from the cutesy little saying we used to teach our preschoolers when I taught Pre-K 4, “if you have a problem, you need a…” and they’d all say, “PLAN!”. Lesson plans are often more of a friend than a foe as I literally obsess on perfecting them for what often takes hours. You can tell I’m back in the world of education, right?
When I don’t have a plan, when I don’t know what my next step will be, when I can’t control a situation to play out the way I think it should, saying I have a hard time is an understatement. Let’s be honest, I’ve been having “a hard time”, feeling very unsettled since last July when we were hit in a head on car collision by a drunk driver. Since that day forward, I’ve had to take the cliche saying, “take it day by day” to heart, and learn to trust in almighty God. It’s easy to say I trust Him. It’s easy to recite scripture over my circumstances and pray for God’s will, but trust is the act of obedience that gets me every time.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
Planning isn’t the problem, we see it all throughout scripture and are encouraged to do so. Just read the wise words of King Solomon in Proverbs and you will see the importance and commandment to plan. Planning in our own understanding and not His is where the problems arise. Failure to trust is the big red truck plowing through, crashing in to every little thing you so careful laid out. The plan is there, God has purposefully laid it out straight to you like a promise in His word. It is set in stone. However, the failure to trust and believe those promises, seemingly freaking out and trying to fix your problems by planning things your way and not His (eek me, me, me!), can take you astray from the perfect plan He has for you.
I am reminded of this example several times with the children of Israel as they were headed to the promise land. The often quoted verse about plans, in Jeremiah 29:11, is God speaking to these children.
“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.”
He had a clear plan, hope, promise, and future set before them. It was set in stone. Although it had been spoken, they had been freed from slavery, and were on their way to that promise, they added MANY years to their journey on repeated occasions as they didn’t trust God and tried to make their own plans to get there. What could have taken 40 days, took 40 years.
I don’t know about you, but many of my plans for this year have failed. I truly believe that I’m in a season of refining and testing as I am back in the “real world” working again in a place God has called me, yet nothing is set in stone or normal from my definition of the word, nor how things “should be”. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and the mark of 40 days until the new year. 40 days signifies a time of testing in the Bible. Remember that purpose God placed in your heart for 2018? While your plans to bring that to fruition may have failed, believe that God can still accomplish that promise in just 40 days. I find it fitting that a day of thanksgiving unto God can be the turning point for your promise. Don’t doubt His plans for your life and take matters into your own hands. Pass the test. Don’t turn 40 days into 40 years. Rather as cliche as it sounds, “take it day by day” starting with thanking and trusting Him.
Matthew 6:34 says,
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
God has given you enough grace for just today. As my good friend often reminds me, to look and see, “where are your feet planted now?”. Mine aren’t set in stone, rather set on the stone, the rock of ages, the God of promise. When my plans fail, may I set my mind, heart, and feet on You, God.
“From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalms 61:2
