Finding Joy in the Unplanned
“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:12
I am not a planner by default. You can ask my wife, when we go on vacation, I’ll normally say something along the lines of, “Oh, we’ll figure it out.” My wife, on the other hand, is a planner. She has every minute accounted for when we take a trip. Despite the details that are on the schedule, some of our favorite memories are those things we didn’t plan for or we didn’t see coming. Many valuable lessons have been learned when things have not gone according to plan.
God loves it when we make plans, because a plan reveals you have goals and a desire to do something to reach them. Plans give us insight into who we are. On the other hand, we can learn a little about ourselves when it isn’t smooth sailing. Can you keep a good attitude when things don’t go according to plan?
The apostle Paul had a lot of plans: to take the gospel of Jesus Christ beyond Israel. However, when you read the Bible, things did not always play out as he would have hoped. I can imagine he did not plan to include many trials and tribulations. Many of those circumstances discourage us and cause us to lose hope and take our eyes off our plan.
When Paul wanted to sail to Rome, he got shipwrecked and ended up on the Island of Malita. Things did not go according to plan. How did Paul overcome disappointment, frustration? The Bible tells us he did none of those things but ministered to the people there, fulfilling his plan.
When he arrived in Macedonia, he ended up in jail. We do not read that Paul turned into a grouch. Instead, we read that he met the Philippian jailer whose family joyfully ended up trusting in the Lord.
We can see throughout all of Paul’s life that his plans don’t always come to fruition. But Phillipians 4:12 gives us “the secret” to how we can live joyfully in the middle of the unexpected or whatever situation we find ourselves in: Trust in God, to know how to live with a lot or with little, in abundance or in necessity, in the cold or in the heat.
Make plans for your life but be flexible with them. Consider Him in your plans. Even when things don’t go as you would have hoped, don’t lose peace because God may have something great in store for you and those around you.