A Sudden Change Of Plans

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

Proverbs 16:9 niv

Some people are excited by change. Others cringe and resist. Those of us who are planners might balk at detours and interruptions. We are moving forward with life, making plans for the day, weekend, year—taking everything into account. Then suddenly there is an interruption. Maybe it’s subtle or maybe it’s as if we’re doing a 180-degree turn. We can almost hear our internal GPS saying “recalculating, recalculating” and coming up with nothing. The GPS has no destination to lock on to. Neither do we.

If we find ourselves facing an unexpected change, we are in good company with some of the people in the Bible. Acts 9 tells of the conversion of Saul. Saul was a Jewish Roman citizen who actively persecuted believers. Christians feared him. He broke into their homes and imprisoned anyone he thought became followers of the way of Christ. His reputation preceded him.

But one day when Saul was on his way to arrest more Christians, he met God in a miraculous way and surrendered his life. In that moment, all his plans changed. In fact, the course of his whole life changed. He became a missionary for Christ and one of the most well-known converts to Christianity.

Sometimes our best-laid plans are interrupted by unpleasant events, and it can be easy to fight it. But when it is an interruption by God, it is best to adjust our GPS to match his destination, knowing that the changes God allows into our lives can work for our good if we surrender to him.

He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. God tapped humanity on its collective shoulder, “Pardon me,” he said, and eternity interrupted time, divinity interrupted carnality, and heaven interrupted the earth in the form of a baby. Christianity was born in one big heavenly interruption.

Max Lucado

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day.

C. S. Lewis

Conversion is the lifelong process of turning away from our plans and turning toward God’s maddening, disruptive creativity.

M. Craig Barnes

For Further Reflection

James 4:10; Ecclesiastes 3:1; Proverbs 3:5–6

Today’s Prayer

“God, interrupt whatever we are doing so that we can join you in what you’re doing.” —Frances Chan