Post By: Angela Parlin
I had a plan for the weekend.
I stuffed an entire suitcase. I packed outfits and shoes for each day. I gathered journals & pens & vitamins & snacks. I confirmed a hotel room. I cleaned the car, inside and out.
I looked forward to enjoying the company of some long-distance friends. I was all ready—to run out the door, to drive down the road with a friend, and to soak up all kinds of help I needed at this weekend retreat.
I’ll be honest, it had been a long week at home. First, some of the kids were home from school a few days with coughs, and then my oldest struggled through a high fever for days.
And then something worse happened. I–the Mama taking care of everyone else–started to feel sick.
At first I tried to deny it and told myself I was okay. Mind over matter, right? I tried to stick to the plan. To not be sick.
But hours later, I knew. I was not heading out the door for anything, especially a fun weekend retreat.
Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Jeremiah 10:23
I may have had a plan, but my plan was not going to happen.
I’m a fan of making plans. I think we all are, really. We may not all be the Type-A, schedule all the hours, write-it-all-down kind of planners, but we all make plans. It’s a part of life.
I’m also a fan of my plans working out the way I plan. Anybody else? {Sidenote: So God made me a Mom—to give me lots of practice dealing with the opposite.}
These last few weeks of sickness were a good reminder that I have so little control over my days, my plans, and the steps I take. But even more than that, it reminded me that I am fully dependent on the Lord.
And this we will do, if God permits. Hebrews 6:3
In the verse above, the writer of Hebrews declares our complete dependence on the Lord, in 8 little words.
Just before this verse, he encouraged the believers to move forward toward maturity, so that they wouldn’t need to be taught the basic foundations of their faith repeatedly. God’s plan for each of us includes growth and maturity, and we each play a part in our growth.
But it’s also true that we don’t completely control it.
Instead, we depend on God, even in the area of our spiritual growth. He is the One who opens our hearts and ultimately causes us to grow.
So we purpose to move forward; we plan to do this, and we will, if and when God permits.
We are completely dependent on the God who gives us breath, and sometimes that’s easy to forget.
In our day-to-day lives, especially these days, we have so many tools for self-sufficiency at our disposal, tools like the internet and vehicles and finances and opportunities and planners in our hands.
Even so, our lives are not our own. We live and move and breathe by the will of the Lord our God.
Even when we don’t understand what He’s allowing in our lives, His will triumphs over our own.
Even when we believe the Lord is leading us one way or another, He has the final say.
We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9, NLT
On the other side of this illness, once again I am certain. He is good. He is in control. And He is worthy of my trust. Praise the Lord.
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Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15, ESV
Angela Parlin is a wife and mom to 3 rowdy boys and 1 sweet girl. In addition to spending time with friends and family, she loves to read and write, spend days at the beach, watch romantic comedies, and organize closets. But most of all, she loves Jesus and writes to call attention to the beauty of life in Christ, even when that life collaborates with chaos. Join her at www.angelaparlin.com, So Much Beauty In All This Chaos.