Jump Start # 3906
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
I talked with this brother in Christ the other day. There was a sadness in his eyes. His wife was home sick. She had so many things wrong with her that she spent most of the day in bed. About the only time she left the house was to go to doctors. She had been this way for a while and there was really no belief that the situation would change.
There were other conversations. One had a disabled child. The child was not young. He need constant attention. There was another one who had a divorce child and the situation wasn’t good. There was another one who had recently put a parent in a nursing home.
Sad stories and beneath it all is that life wasn’t turning out like these people planned. When we are young and in our 20s we paint a picture of the future that is filled with hope, dreams and happiness. But, then life happens. Our Plan A doesn’t look like the Plan A that we planned. Sickness and sadness has turned life into major adjustments in how we thought things would be. Finances drained because of health issues. Having to work a lot longer than one wanted to. Having a child or a mate than requires constant medical attention. Gone are the dreams of traveling. Gone are the dreams of playing with the grandkids. Gone is the life that one wanted to have.
Years ago I preached a lesson called, “Bloom where you are planted.” That became one of our Jump Starts in the early years. The idea came from driving about where the highway was cut through the rocks. On both sides of the highway were high walls of rocks. But, there, sticking out of the rock was a tree. No one planted the tree there. It happened to have enough soil and sunlight that a seed, blown by the wind or dropped by a bird, that it started to grow. Today, a tree sticks out of the rocks along the highway.
Now, if that tree could talk, it’d likely want to be planted in front of the county courthouse, or in a beautiful park, where everyone could enjoy it. But as it is, it’s sticking out of a rock ledge along some ugly highway. And, that so often illustrates life for us. Oh, the plans and the dreams we started with, but life and reality makes us realize that those dreams were just that, dreams. Life didn’t turn out the way we wanted. And, that causes a deep regret, sadness and discouragement with us.
Some thoughts:
First, we don’t get to determine all the details of our life. We think we do, but things happen. People break promises. Sin, disaster, trials and temptations all alter the direction that we were traveling. It is selfish and a bit immature to become bitter because things did not turn out the way I wanted. There is a house that you wanted to buy, but before you could get your act together, someone else puts money down and it becomes their house, not yours. Multiple times in history, young men who were busy in school or starting families and early in their careers were rushed overseas to fight in a war. They didn’t want to do that, but duty called. Many of those young men never made it back alive. For families back home, their world was turned upside down. A car accident can instantly change the dreams that you were holding on to.
We can’t control all the aspects of life.
Second, what we feel is Plan A for us, may not be what God has in mind. God may have another Plan A for us. We see that Biblically with the apostle Paul. He was sky rocketing in the Jewish faith, a rock star in aggressively stamping out that new movement based on Jesus. But a road trip turned into a vision and a complete course correction for Paul. What he tried to defeat, he now was promoting. His Plan A wasn’t what God had in mind.
And, it may be the same for you. God may have plans for you that you never thought of.
Third, while we love to live happily ever after, with sunny days, and smiles upon our faces, it may be the valleys of the shadow of death that God wants us to travel. Sitting at a table with our enemy as Psalms 23 presents is not where we want to sit. We want to sit with family and friends. We don’t mind if we never see our enemy again. But, the Lord puts us at the table with our enemy.
It’s in the darkness of the storms that our true character shines and our faith is manifested. We learn more through the storms than we do in days of peace and prosperity. So, life doesn’t turn out the way we imagined. Make the most of it. Glory God through it. Learn lessons. Become a servant of the Lord.
Trials and troubles won’t follow us to Heaven. There will be no disappointment in Heaven. Blooming where you are planted is an important lesson in life. So you are stuck growing out of the rock along some ugly highway. Make the most of it. Bring some beauty to that ugly stretch of road. Put some shade to cool the area.
Life may not turn out the way you expected. You can still be a vital part of the kingdom and you can glorify God where you are in life. Bloom where you are planted.
Roger