God's Plan versus Ours

One of the strongest imprints from our old nature is the desire to maintain control of our lives and everything in it. I find that I have this need to "plan my day" and if I'm not careful I will pursue my plan regardless of anything. Now I'm not advocating an undisciplined or careless lifestyle, but there is a downside to being "organized". The downside or pitfall is that we see the opportunities for ministry that God brings into our daily lives as interruptions or hindrances instead of "divine appointments". In other words, we miss them because we misunderstand them. Instead of saying, "Thank you Lord, what are You doing here and what do You want me to do'' in our hearts we are impatient or aggravated at being hindered from carrying out OUR plan for the day. Instead of being lead by the Spirit we are driven by our need to maintain control. At the end of the day we have finished our check list of "Things to Do Today" but have accomplished very little (if anything) for the Kingdom and to the glory of God. The result is that we are tired instead of joyful and somewhat bored with the tedium of life instead of being filled with wonder and excitement at God's providential workings in our daily experience.

Let me illustrate this from yesterday's experiences. Monday is my usual "day off" so that makes Tuesday my Monday. It is a day filled with tasks and some deadlines that make it "busy" though not stressful (well, not very stressful, anyway). I'll not bore you with all the things I need to do, but to add to my "list" was one more project. I had promised to get last Sunday's sermon outline into printed form. Spike had typed out the notes he took and e-mailed them to me. This was a great help but only a starter. So after the normal deadlines were met I began work on "The History of Heaven and Hell". You probably think that all I had to do was copy my sermon notes and it was done. I wish! The truth is that I study all week for my message, then I write my notes but when I preach God always adds to it so there are a lot of things that are not in my notes. My plan was to have them done by lunch time. The reality was that I didn't finish until 6:30 this morning and I worked on them unto 10:00 last night. I'm a slow typist and a slower thinker but this is not the reason it took me so long. Here's what happened.
I was "working up a storm" when a young man (a stranger) walked into my office and just sat down. He was passing by and just stopped in on a whim to ask about the church. We had a rather strange conversation that lasted a little over an hour (there goes finishing by noon!). Then as suddenly as he had walked in, he just got up and walked out. As I sat there, I realized that I had gotten to share the gospel with him in in the course of our conversation. He had assumed that Methodists and Presbyterians were a "different religion" from Baptists. So, I explained to him the difference between denominations and religions. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. are different denominations but the same religion; Christianity. We have some doctrinal differences but we all believe the same gospel as the way of salvation. At that point I explained the gospel to him. Now, I had planned to go out last night and see if i could manufacture an opportunity to share the gospel but God just walked one right into my office (and my busy schedule) and saved me burning all that gas to boot.
My day was not over yet so I went back to work on my outline when my cell phone rang and Nate wanted me to go by Burger King and pick him up some lunch. So, granddad that I am, off I went. While I was in line at BK my phone rang again and a member of my church, who had moved to Shelby County, called and wanted to meet me for lunch. Now the amazing thing was that Chuck and I had both had him and his family on our hearts and had just discussed their situation that morning. They had moved away two years ago and had yet to find a new church home. So as we met over a two and a half hour lunch He shared how God had been working in his life and his family's and that they were about to join a church in their area. WOW! Do you know what my first though was when He called and wanted to have lunch was? "Man, I'm never gonna get this outline done." Then God put in my mind, "What's more important, your outline or your friend and my child?" I began to pray that God would give me the insight and sensitivity to be used in my friend's life in some way. There was something that my friend needed from me and it was a joy to give it. What a Day! I might not have finished my "To Do" list but that doesn't matter, God had a better list "To Do" through me.
Here is one last thought. There are no accidents, interruptions, hindrances in God's plan for us, just "divine appointments" and opportunities. Don't be so busy doing your list that you are impatient or aggravated or that you blow off, rush through or avoid altogether something that, in Heaven, you will find out was more important that your entire "TO DO LIST" for that day.