Nothing is as Planned
Our control of life is more limited than we usually think or devoutly wish it to be.
Our plans are like a bad first-draft outline.
Perhaps we are thinking we just need to improve our planning skills.
Certainly there is no problem with learning from mistakes.
This makes complete sense.
When life doesn’t go as planned, when it does its own thing and laughs at our plans, it’s time to accept the important truth that we are not in charge of much.
In fact we have only exclusive control of one thing.
Our attitude.
Example.
Life unfolds giving two different people the same problem, disappointment, and heartache. Both take the blow and feel the pain and disappointment in the short run. However, soon one has given up and the other has redoubled efforts to live with renewed purpose and contentment.
Both had a choice having nothing really to do with luck or good fortune, because both were hit with an equal level of misery. Their choice was how they would respond to disappointment with one choosing to drown in it and the other choosing to use it as a stepping stone toward an even better life.
Expect and even plan for disappointments so you can manage them effectively. They are as much a part of life as are moments of achievement.
But this is only one side the story.
One of the beautiful things about surprises is that a lot of what is unplanned turns out to be the best part of the day. Life not only throws punches it plants kisses as well.
Living life is more than executing a plan and overcoming a difficulty, it is discovering civilization where we least expect it. It is finding out that God is anything but silent, and, moreover, that he speaks and shows himself in a thousand different ways to the open and grateful mind.
Again, it all comes down to attitude being like an old radio dial that helps us tune in and out off all the propagating wavelengths of spiritual energy — invisible and yet real — around us.
Consider that choosing faith or belief is the precursor to seeing most of the time; not the other way around. We always see more after choosing to believe.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)
