Best Laid Plans & Shifting Sand

What is that adage about best laid plans?

Something about going awry?

I was a bit confused on just what awry means and I wanted to be sure before I slapped it up on a blog. So I did what any good writer does, I right clicked on the word to get a list of synonyms (and yes, I do own a thesaurus and I even own a synonym finder book). Here’s what I found:

skewed
askew
crooked
off beam
out of kilter
twisted
off-center

Awry also means: muddled, and amiss

So, that’s my world – awry and all those other adjectives. I think muddled, twisted, and out of kilter describe me the best. So, that’s me today – muddled, twisted and out of kilter.

Last week, I was much more together. It seems that I just get to the place where I think I have a slight grip on what’s happening in my world, and then something shifts. Sometimes these shifts feel like a major earthquake and other times they are more like standing at the ocean’s edge as the sand moves under my feet. Today has been more of an ocean’s edge day – not a serious shift, but one that’s thrown me off balance.

I’ve plotted everything out for the next six months and this isn’t in my plan. This doesn’t work for me, Lord. I can’t do this. I don’t have this on my calendar. Find someone else. I don’t want to do this. I want to cry and stomp my feet like a petulant child.

I look at my calendar and consider the next months, I start to panic. I feel as if I’m crumbling under the load – so I’m taking a step back and, I will do, as a dear, sweet friend recently told me “take a breath.”

In that breath I realized that I’m so fast to make plans and lay them out for God to bless. Okay, Lord, here’s the deal—we’re going to do this and then we’ll go there and do that. (Notice how I say we? I’m always good to include the Lord in my plans.)

Today, He caught my attention and, once again, made me see that He’s in control and it’s only through Him that I get through each day. I don’t function in this world because I’m so together – in fact, without Christ I couldn’t make it a day without just falling flat on my face. I don’t operate out of my strength, but only through His.

Pride is stepping in the way. I want to be in control. I want to write my schedule and plot my days. I realized that it’s not about calendars or schedules. It’s about the God I serve. I serve the God who created our universe; the God who breathed life into man; the God who moves mountains, delivers people from captivity and the God who sent His own Son to die for me. This is my God – this God of might and wonder. I serve a wondrous God who’s called me into His service and given me a task. He will equip me for the work He’s laid before me. His grace is all I need.

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

I don’t know why the plans have changed. I don’t understand all the Lord is doing. I don’t know why the sand has shifted --- but He does. This I do know -- that I find my joy, my strength and my purpose in my life in Him. The sand may have shifted, but I’m standing on the Rock. He is my rock and my salvation. It’ in Him that I trust.

Today, I am claiming this verse—

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

I chose to overflow with HOPE by His power! So, even though the sand has shifted and I’m struggling with this new path, I’m trusting in God. He’s faithful and has brought me this far, I trust that He will handle the rest of this journey.

Have you had a change in your life?
Are you struggling with something that needs change?
Today, right now, call on God for His strength and His power in your life. Stand firmly on the Rock that is your Salvation.

In Him,