Plans and Course Corrections

This morning I pretty much kept to my routine tho' I slept a few minutes past my regular wake-up time. My routine is: up; coffee; pack lunch; computer: email, Twitter, Facebook; consult list for today.
In reading down the 84 Twitter posts I came across this post by Paul Tripp:
Our struggle with sin is so deep it was not enough for God to forgive us, no he has also unzipped us and gotten inside of us by his Spirit.
I woke up this morning the same way I always do - carrying around a sinner's heart. Granted God is working to restore all that is broken by sin down to the core of my being (my heart) but the process is far from done. I need Him to change me in ways I may not even comprehend to make me less broken by the end of this day than I am at this moment!
What a great thought for beginning my day! I don't know what this day will bring into my life and sphere of influence. I pretty much know that it's going to be beastly hot. I know I have a long list of things to do. I know that sometime today I have to help set up for church tomorrow and finish the Children's Page.............I also know that my plan is often changed by the One Who says, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jer. 29:11)
When I put Paul Tripp's thought with God's promise I have to know - when my plans change today in unexpected ways - that because God cares enough about me to get inside me and direct my life from my core being (my heart) that it's a good thing.
I can't see into the future as far as the end of one step in any direction. There is One Who knows His plans and will direct my steps. When the end of the day comes if I look at my list and find few items checked off because of Divine interuptions, I remind myself that because God has plans for me - to prosper me and not to harm me and to give me hope and a future - that these course corrections are a good thing!
When my dad was captain of a Navy ship in the south Pacific during WWII he left the con (control) of the ship to a younger officer while Daddy went to eat down in the mess (dining hall). As he was finishing his meal another officer looked out the porthole and asked, "Captain, you preparing to beach this craft? My dad was always quick on his feet. He jumped up, looked out and saw the beach coming up fast. As he ran for the ladder, he called to the man actually steering the ship, Left full rudder and hurtled up to the bridge. Sitting at the con he found a young ensign with his feet propped. Daddy said, Do you plan to run this ship onto the beach? The young ensign casually looked at his watch and said, Capt'n, it's 20 minutes before a course correction. My dad said, Do you think this thing has wheels? In 20 minutes we'll be three miles inland.
The urgent Left hard rudder brought the ship around close enough to the beach that they could see the natives running down to see the big ship. The ship turned just as the breakers were forming. That was a serious and necessary course correction!
Perhaps I will casually and sometimes frantically go though my day working my plan until the Capt'n asks, You planning to "beach this craft"? I am pretty stupid if I tell the Capt'n that my agenda (to change course in 20 minutes) is superior to His command to change course NOW!
Course changes in my life often include people and their needs. Will I be willing to change course for someone who needs a kind word or deed? Will I be willing to change course for some urgent "interruption," I certainly hope so. And I know so if my Capt'n is directing my course from the center of my heart!

Happy New Year 2012! What's to be Happy About?

A friend posted on Facebook yesterday (basically), 2011 you haven't been very kind to me so get on out of here!
What was 2011 like for you? Did you have financial troubles? Were you deceived? Did you lose your job or your home? Did someone steal from you? Did your husband or wife walk away or die? Did someone you love die? Do you feel like a fool because you acted foolishly? Are you losing your hearing or your sight? When you look in the mirror today do you see a much older, more tired you than you remember seeing just a short while ago? Are you depressed and crushed in that battle? Did you learn you have a terminal or crippling disease in 2011?
That's a pretty horrible list, isn't it? Perhaps you fit more than one category on this list! I have a very dear friend who actually fits a number of these categories all in 2011. All the circumstances listed above are terrible, horrible, no-good and very bad! No one wants to meet up with any of these things in any dark alley!
Well, I have the best news! I am telling you confidently and truly that even tho' it may seem like THE END if you face even one of these horrendous life circumstances that ........ it is NOT the end!
You may wish it were the end but it is NOT the end! It is 2012 - a NEW year - and you came into 2012 with the same broken heart you had in 2011. How can I be so sure this is GOOD news? Because I know Who God is and I know for absolute certain that He shows up in any and all of these terrible, awful, no-good, very bad circumstances of life! AND God does more than just show up! He doesn't sit on His hands! He comes to participate in these terrible, awful, no-good, very bad circumstances that seem like the sentence of death! He NEVER comes to shake His finger in your face making you feel all the worse and more desperate. He comes to you with love and a hug. He whispers in your ear that He does indeed understand. He knows and cares and acted upon His love for you and me over 2,000 years ago when He brought His Son into our time and space - into our neighborhood - into skin just like ours. God demonstrated His love in the most graphic, radical, compelling way He possible could: He sent His Son to live the life you and I never can ( a perfect life) so that His Son Jesus could die the death that you and I could never die (the death of a perfect life willingly laid down). Jesus lived and died JUST for these desperate kinds of circumstances of life! Jesus lived and died for all the terrible, awful, no-good, very bad days in 2011 (or any other year!)! Jesus lived and died for all the terrible, awful, no-good, very bad days to come in 2012! AND that's GOOD news because Jesus conquered death when He walked out of His borrowed tomb on a mountainside outside Jerusalem, Israel on the first Easter Sunday morning over 2,000 years ago! He is alive!
The poet King David wrote thousands of years before Jesus came to earth, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for YOU are with me! (Ps. 23:4) These words, this confident confession express healthy faith! This kind of faith acknowledges the dark, deadly, desperate places we have to walk through but also affirms that we do not walk alone! How do I know that? Because Jesus lived and died and came back to life to make it so! If you doubt, if it's ever so hard to believe it can possibly be true for you - remember that God always keeps His promises!
God says to you this New Year's Day 2012: I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future! (Jeremiah 29:11) AND HE WILL! You can take that to the bank!

Disability, Disease and Death - WHY?

This week I had an encounter with death. This week I also encountered disability and disease. My good friend's beautiful Siberian Husky died Monday night. Several good friends live with significantly serious disability. A good friend has terminal cancer. Other close friends live with blindness, neurological disabilities or diseases and the prospect of their pain increasing. Some of these friends will never be better this side of heaven.

Disability, disease and death happen. Why? Where is God? Is He asleep at the switch (or even sending a text message like the engineer in California recently was when his train collided with another train killing and seriously injuring many passengers) when this kind of pain comes?

The WHY? question is our feeble attempt to make some sense out of pain and suffering and death. More often than not, we don't know the answer to WHY? We scream "WHY?" into the darkness of death, disability and disease. Does this kind of terrible pain happen because God is just not powerful enough to stop the big stuff or because it slips past His notice?

Are disability, disease and death part of God's plan? Or are they the result of mis-laid plans or even evil intent? Are disability, disease and death horrible, tragic coincidences? Is evil spinning out of control? Is God either unwilling or incapable of stopping these big three: disability, disease and death?

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrestled with the WHY? question following the death of his son. He concluded that often there are things God just isn't powerful enough to stop - like disability, disease and death. Rabbi Kushner's conclusion is certainly not what the Bible says.

Joni Eareckson Tada writes in her devotional book Pearls of Great Price: It's one thing for God to deliberately let something awful happen for reasons we may not understand, but it would be another for God to wish He could have prevented it, but have one hand tied behind His back. Either God rules, or Satan sets your life's agenda and God is limited to only reacting. In which case, the Almighty would become the devil's clean-up boy. Although God would manage to patch things up, your suffering would be meaningless. ... No, the real tragedy is that any Christian would settle for such darkenss with the light of the Bible shining so clearly. If God didn't control evil, the result would be evil uncontrolled. Our suffering has meaning because " ... His kingdom rules over all." (Psalm 103:19) (from "The Real Tragedy," November 30th)

Nothing else makes sense! Nothing less gives comfort in the midst of disability, disease and death! Only the sure knowledge that God is God and that He is working His plan in the world and in individual hearts brings peace and comfort in the midst of struggling with disability, disease and death!

God's promise is sure: "For I know the plans I have for you ... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) God always keeps His promises! We can count on that no matter what we encounter. We can be sure that no matter how dark the darkness disability, disease and death may bring that God is there with us in the pain and darkness. He sees and knows what is happening. He is still on His throne, and He does have BOTH hands on the switch. Nothing happens (not even disability, disease or death) outside His plan! His plan is to give hope and a future and not to harm us ever!