In "Other" Words - Tuesdays at CWO

~ Beth Moore~
From the poem: "The Life I Planned"


THE LIFE I PLANNED
by Beth Moore

Has someone seen the life I planned?
It seems it's been misplaced
I've looked in every corner
It's lost without a trace.

I've found one I don't recognize
Things missing that were kept dear
Promises I'd hoped to keep
And dreams I'd dreamed aren't here.

Faces I planned to see
Hands I planned to hold
Now absent in the pictures
Not the way I told.

Has someone seen the life I planned?
Did it get thrown away?
God took my hand from searching
Then I heard Him say,

"Child, your ears have never heard
Your eyes have never seen
Eternal plans I have for you
Are more than you could dream.

You long to walk by sight
But I'm teaching eyes to see.
I know what I am doing
'Til then, you must believe."

He's done so much, I felt ashamed
To know He heard my moans
To think I'd trade in all He's done
For plans made on my own.

I wept over His faithfulness
And how He'd proved Himself
How He'd gone beyond my dreams
and said to Him, myself,

"No, my ears have never heard
My eyes have never seen
Eternal plans you have for me
Are more than I could dream.

Yes, I long to walk by sight
But You're teaching eyes to see
You know what You are doing
'Til then, I must believe."

I felt His great compassion
Mercy unrestrained
He let me mourn my losses
And showed me to my gains.

I offered Him my future
And released to Him my past
I traded in my dreams
For a plan He said would last.

I get no glimpse ahead
No certainties at all
Except the presence of the One
Who will not let me fall.

Are you also searching
For a life you planned yourself?
Have you looked in every corner?
Have you checked on every shelf?

Child, your ears have never heard
Your eyes have never seen
Eternal plans He has for you
Are more than you could dream.

Perhaps you long to walk by faith
But He's teaching eyes to see
He knows what He is doing
Child, step out and believe.

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 Corinthians 2:9

How many of us at the age of 20/21 had dreams and a life planned out that at the age of 30/40/50 when we look around and there is NOTHING of that plan in effect? In fact, very little, if any, of our life resembles the plan that we had made for ourselves. How many of us had those dreams in place without consulting God on any of them?

I know that at the age of 20 I was madly in love with someone that I thought to the bottom of my toes that I was going to marry and that we would live a happy life with lots of kids and everything would be rosy. Instead, at the age of 21, I was broken hearted and disillusioned and numb to the very soul of me. There wouldn't be that happily ever after with the man I had envisioned growing old with, instead there was just me – so wounded that I couldn't even cry for months after the breakup.

So here I am, fast forward 12 years and I am taking care of my amazing daughter and divorced, my ex having had an emotional affair over two years ago with someone still in her teens and who just gave birth to his 3rd child last month. In the realm of the worldly I should be angry and bitter about the outcome, and, to be honest, there are times that I am angry about it, but I realize now how much less stress-filled my life is out of that relationship and now I am able to focus more on my relationship with God and strengthening that rather than focusing on everything that was going wrong in my life.

I've realized that I really can do nothing worthwhile apart from God because everything that I try to do on my own comes back empty and hollow. If you are a Christian and think you have a plan for your life and try to do it apart from God, you're going to have to sit back and watch your plan fall apart as God laughs at the folly of our human nature. I've learned through my experiences that that happens because God is guiding me back to Him. The life I had planned for myself may not have hurt and ached like the life that God has given me, but it would have been shallow and weak and pale in comparison to what I have now and to where I am still headed. God has in mind for all of us a rich, deep and growing life in Him and He will use whatever means necessary to bring us into that life and that relationship with Him, to bring us in from out of the cold to the warm, love giving, live affirming, full bodied relationship with Him.

Many times God disrupts our "plans" so that we do not boast that WE did it, that it is by OUR smarts or OUR skills that WE accomplished these things in life. Rather God disrupts OUR plans so that we can see in the end that it was HE who brought us through the storms in life so that we can boast properly that it was GOD who did the wonderful things in our life.

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. " 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Many times God also disrupts our plans to keep us from being devoured by the Enemy because, though it is not our conscious intention, God can see where our plans are heading and it is to a place that ends up where we fall into the hands of evil – of Satan and because God loves us, he will not allow that to happen so He can disrupt our plans to prevent that from happening. The popular saying holds true: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Many times we don't understand why God stops our plans, why God breaks our hearts and we will never know, but often times it is because our hearts and lives would have ended up being broken as well as the lives and hearts of many others because of our "intentions". God watches out for us, even when we don't understand why He chooses the ways to protect us that He does.

"...your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8

There is another saying that kind of fits along with this one – at least in my mind it does...Please be patient, God isn't finished with me yet.

I'm not perfect – nobody is. I am a work in progress and God's plan for me is much better than what I could have planned for myself. Do I know what His plan for me is yet? No, but I know that God never gives those who trust in Him and who follow Him second best. I've had second best and it hurt. I'll take the life that God has planned for me because He always does what is best for us. I'm ready for THE best and the only way to get that is by following God's plan for my life, even if I don't always understand what it is or how He is leading me there.

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

"Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways." Psalm 128:1

"And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:5-7

P.S. Thanks to all of my blogfriends who offered me advice on my previous post (which I have since removed). Especially you, Uisce. Good advice and taken to heart.