I use the Apple calendar. I love that an addition or change on one device syncs with my other devices. Before the Apple calendar I had a Palm Pilot. Before the Palm Pilot, I faithfully kept a paper calendar I referred to every day.
That just confirms what I’ve known for a long time. I am a planner.
Drives my husband nuts. It sometimes frustrates me too. Changes, cancellations, and delays tend to upset my Apple cart.
For years now, God has been teaching – and patiently re-teaching – me a lesson about my planning, my time, and Who’s really in control.
Apparently, I needed a refresher on that lesson. Before COVID-19 hit the U.S. my spring calendar was packed. A trip to New York with my daughters and daughter-in-law. Multiple speaking and teaching events. A conference or two. A couple of weddings, a couple of concerts – my husband is a big music buff.
And then, just like your calendar and plans, everything was wiped off in one clean sweep.
God’s Perfect Sense of Timing
God does indeed have a perfect sense of timing. I just finished reading through the book of James. The whole book is packed with practical wisdom and direction for our faith today. But one passage in particular is so relevant to my need to plan.
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16, NLT
That doesn’t mean we can’t make plans. It simply means we should seek God’s direction and then hold our plans loosely. Be ready and willing to change. James wrote that making plans without seeking God’s will and direction is “boastful.” Why?
First, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We have no control over the future. And, second, our time, resources, and talents all belong to God. He has the right to dictate how and when they are used.
God Owns Our Calendar
For years now, God has been working to teach me this truth: My time belongs to Him for His purposes. Leaving God out of my planning reveals an attitude of pride and willful independence. God wants me to be humbly dependent on Him. And that’s really the best and safest place to be anyway.
Only God knows what tomorrow will bring. And, thankfully, He is in total control!
I want to be a humble, God-seeking planner. What about you?
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So timely, Kathy. Thanks. I need this today. Wishing I could go visit my kids out of state. Not sure of events in the fall. So much hanging…
I really struggled at first to accept all the cancellations. But I do want to learn what God’s trying to teach me!
I so identify with Jeanne.
Homesick to see our daughter. Trust, Trust, Trust God’s timing!
Our trust muscles are really getting a workout during this time…