Unplanned Plans

The funniest thing just happened. Sort of. I am sitting here with my computer in my lap, really wanting to write. I have a million thoughts, analogies, and insights rolling around in my head. Nothing was really pushing its way to the front, though, so I was looking through some rough drafts I had saved to see if anything tripped my trigger there. I was just putting the finishing touches on one especially smart, poignant piece when the dog I really wanted came along to lay next to me, put her head on the edge of my compter, and somehow deleted the whole thing. (I can tell you that it was smart and poignant because none of us will ever see it. I'm not smart enough to recover it from the bowels of cyberspace...)

Anyway, instead of looking for something new to work on, I tried to go back and re-create it. I stared at the blank screen trying to remember the sheer genius of the phrasing that had seemed so right but got...nothing. I have to start fresh.

Life is just like that sometimes, though, isn't it? We think we have everything perfect, just the way it should be, and something comes along to completely wipe it out. We scramble, trying to fix it all back up. I have the image of the tide rushing in to dissolve a child's sand castle. Instead of moving to higher ground, they tried to rebuild the castle, a futile effort as the sand is being pulled out to sea.

I think about all the times the rug has been pulled out from under me. I use up all my energy trying to fix things, make them look just like they used to, instead looking for the new path. The new opportunity. The fresh start. But it doesn't always feel like a fresh start, does it? Sometimes it feels like failure. It feels like we have done something wrong.

This is where faith comes in. In Isaiah 43:18-19, God says "Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" Sometimes the Lord is trying to take us a new direction, to open new possibilities up to us, and we are trying to make the old stuff come back.

Every day that we wake up breathing is a new possibility. A new dream. If you are reading this post, that means that God still has a plan for you. Open your eyes and look around...His plans don't always look like our plans, but they will accomplish The Purpose that He has for you.

Sometimes, when I'm playing Legos with the kids, I try to use all the blocks of a certain color, and I find that I don't have the right pieces to make my masterpiece. I switch colors, or add a new one, and find that I have everything I need to make something far grander than I imagined. God has given us tools and gifts to make the dream He has for us a reality. Are you using them all? Is there something still in the box that you haven't tapped into yet? Have you even asked Him what direction you should be heading in, or are you still running backwards, looking for that old path?

Life is dynamic, ever-changing. The end of a plan doesn't mean failure...it just means that a new one is starting. How exciting is that??

Author's note: For me, this morning, I was praying for God to show me something new, to show me the direction He wanted the blog to go. The only way He could show me was to take away the thing I was clinging to, the other writing piece. Hmm.