when God interrupts

Well, after a couple of crazy months where I did not feel like I had time to think something through enough to write a blog on it, I am back. Hopefully, back to more consistent posting on here - although I make no promises as to how much (or little) I will post.

I was reading in the book of James recently and was struck by how God can interrupt and change our plans. James 4:13-15 says:

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this that." (NIV)

It is an interesting few verses to read. In light of some recent occurrences in my life, some challenging verses to read as well.

At first glance, it could appear that James is telling his readers not to really make any plans for the future, because you cannot know what will happen. What James is actually saying is the plans we make should be held onto loosely so God can come in and rearrange them at any time. We do need to make plans. That is the way we live life on this earth. But, our plans should not be so set in stone that we miss God coming in and trying to change them.

This definitely rang true for me in the last few weeks. At the end of May I moved out of the apartment I had shared with friends for the last three and a half years. I thought I had a place arranged to move into and found out at the last minute that I did not, so I moved back in with my parents. When that became my option, it was not my plan. But, now that I have been here for a week and a half, I can see that it was God's. As much as I never thought I would want to move back to my parents' there is something comforting and relaxing about being "home" for a time. And that is something that I need right now, after a very busy May.

I can also see where I allowed God to interrupt my plans in the past too and rearrange them to be His. One of those other times came towards the end of my second year of college, when God had in mind to send me to the prairies for two years at Bible college. In many ways it would have been easier to just stay where I was, but God had things in store for me at Bible college and I needed to go there for that.

Of course, there are also times in my life (more than I wish to count) where I have been stubbornly committed to doing something my way, no matter what God wanted.

What about you? What plans in your life have you held onto so tightly God could not come in and rearrange them? Where have you allowed God to come in and rearrange your plans? Are you currently holding onto plans tightly? Or are you holding onto them loosely - knowing where you think you should be going, but open to allowing God to change them?

God calling

God, that's too big; God, that's too hard;

God, I'm not qualified to do that!

God, are You sure You got the right person?

Over and over, those words - my response

To the things God tells me to do.

But, He keeps on calling - He just won't give up -

Calling me to do what seems too big and too hard;

What I feel unqualified to do.

Why does He want me for that job?

Why does He think I can do it?

Just trust Me, He says, I'll help you to do it.

I made you, remember? I know you can do it!

With Me by your side - you won't be alone.

You can do big things cuz I made you that way;

You just have to follow and trust and obey.

OK, God, I'll follow and trust and obey.

I know I can't do this all on my own.

I need You beside me each step of the way.

Where You lead I will follow and trust and obey.

change, dreams, the next step

It is only four days until my sister will be married and less than two weeks until I have to move, so I am sure there are more productive things I could be doing at 11 at night (like sleeping!), but my mind is turning to my blog and what I want to write. I am not sure I have more than a few sentences about a few different topics that are only somewhat related, so I have no idea what this post will hold.

Change . . .  that is the big thing in my life right now . . . and to be honest I am not a fan of change. But life, it seems, is full of it. Big changes, little changes, hard changes, easy changes, good changes, bad changes. The one consistent thing is that life brings change. As much as I do not like change, when I look back on my life, sometimes the biggest growth has come out of the times of the biggest changes in my life.

Sometimes I look at all that is coming between now and the end of the month and I wonder how I will get it all done. There's still a lot of boxes to pack and a lot of cleaning to do. I wonder if sometimes in life we get so big in what we look at that we get overwhelmed. That is definitely what is happening with moving. If I look at all that is left, it seems impossible. But if I look at just the next task that I need to get done, then it seems do-able. Life can be that way too. We look at the big picture - the big dream we have of what we could do or be - and it seems like we will never be able to do it. But if we stop and just look at the next thing we need to do to move toward that dream, it becomes much more manageable. We need the big picture to give us the excitement, the passion to move forward. But then we need to move to just looking at the next step, so that we can actually move toward the dream and make it a reality.