Change of Plans
This week has really not gone the way I’d hoped. Not that I had big plans, but they sort of … disappeared or morphed, especially these last two days. For the record, I would have preferred if things had kept to my plans and I found myself annoyed that things had shifted. Granted, nothing catastrophic occurred and I'm thankful for that, but I still like a plan.
In general, Monday through Wednesday behaved themselves decently. As a bonus, Monday was even a holiday, though it did mean that Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit more packed with things to do. They were long, hot days but they were manageable. But then along came Thursday and my best laid plans slide right off the page.
On Thursday, I woke up with a start at 5:30am to something crawling on me (probably an ant since we seem to be in “ant season” where they’re invading buildings in search of water or cooler weather). Just in case you were wondering, this isn’t really my preferred way of waking up, but once I flailed around trying to rid my arm of whatever insect was on me (real or imagined), I was wide awake. Try as I might to get back to sleep, it eluded me which meant that I was a bit more tired than usual for most of the day.
Thursday also typically involves printing the worship handout in the office and sending out the View online, plus writing the article if it’s my week. These are things that I generally enjoy. But this week, getting things printed took longer since I had to fight a little with the design to get it looking right, there were extra things to print, and we needed cardstock that was hiding… and well, things were not exactly cooperating. As for the View… well, that didn’t quite go to plan either. You’ve no doubt noticed, it’s my week to write and the View did not get published on Thursday.
Today is Friday which is typically a day that I don’t work. (My work week is Sunday through Thursday and take a “weekend” on Friday and Saturday; many of us who work in churches do this, including Pastor Karl.) But the way this week was going, I knew I’d have to work a little today, since the View wasn’t going to send itself nor was this article going to write itself. I figured I’d get the girls out the door to school, take a walk, and then sit down to write. But unfortunately, life had other plans and my household woke up to a warm refrigerator. Emptying the contents of our dying fridge into other places was not on my list of things to do today. Nor was buying a new fridge but we did that today, too.
Alas. None of these things were a part of my plan and if I’m honest, all of it made me a little grumpy. But I still had to write, so I sat down, opened up the word processing software and instead of a new document launching, my computer offered me a recently started one. I laughed when I saw what it was because it was sort of as if the Holy Spirit was saying, “Hey, maybe let some of that other stuff go, or at least set it aside for a minute, and come sit with me.” The text on the screen was from a prayer by Tanner Olson that I’d copied earlier in the week, thinking perhaps it would provide a launching point for a prayer in worship. Apparently, God thought now would be a good time and, in truth, God was right.
I sat with the prayer, decided to set aside the annoyances of the week, relinquish my first-world problems to the Universe, and decided to sit for a little while in God’s presence. This time with God didn’t fix things, but it shifted my perspective just enough that I’m not annoyed any longer. I know that plans do not always work out the way we hope, things break, and at times, tasks take much longer than we’d prefer. And I also know that we can choose a different reaction and we possess the capacity to look beyond what is immediately bothersome to other horizons. Not only that, we are able to lean into trusting the Divine who is always with us and gives us just what we need for that day, whether or not it’s in our plans.
God,
Let it be Your grace that carries me,
let it be Your love that sustains me,
let it be Your joy that fills me,
and let it be Your light that guides me
through another day.
Amen
