When Your Plans Change

Ivan (Del's brother) & Del

Linda and I had planned to be in Green Lake, Wisconsin tonight as our annual HSRM conference begins tomorrow morning. We were all packed, ready and excited to go. But now it seems we will not go. Because Linda's father Del's defibrillator went off twice yesterday. Now Del is in ICU at St Vincent's Hospital in Toledo. Our plans have changed. Del's plans have changed, too. But God has plans. And we are to align with what God is doing.

Yesterday we went through a range of emotions. It is a horrible thing to hear someone scream when their debrillator goes off. It is a more horrible thing for that person. Decisions must be made - to go to the ER or not? It's not always clear. For the caregiver the unclarity is hard. We don't always know if we are making the right decisions. And sometimes there's no time to sit back and weigh alternatives.

For Linda and I today the voice of God is clear: we are to stay with Del. He feels he has interrupted our plans. But of course that's not true. As Linda told him last night, "Dad, you would do the same thing for us."

"Life" is not about "us" and "our plans" or "my plans." It's normal to feel disappointed when you're all packed, ready to go, and the interruption comes. I think it's at points like this that we really see what kind of spiritual life we have. Life, you see, is a series of interruptions. And within this life the Holy Spirit often interrupts, in His typical non-programmatic and unpredictable way. How we respond at those times is crucial, both to what God is doing and to the formation of Christ in us. Those are the two really important things, right? 1) what God is doing; and 2) the formation of Christ in us. (Galatians 4:19)