The Best-Laid Plans

I had planned to post something last week.  I even knew exactly what I was going to write about.  And then life happened and my husband spent three days in the hospital.  Fortunately, he is doing well and it was nothing life-threatening.  But it was the kind of thing that annoyingly stole our week!  Interestingly, I don’t think it was a coincidence.

A lot of pieces in my life seem to be converging with each other right now.  First of all, last week was the anniversary of 9/11 – a day when completely unexpected things that we couldn’t control happened in our nation.  The past few weeks have held some unexpected and out-of-our-control health concerns for my husband and me.  Our pastor began a new teaching series to help us understand why it matters what we believe, and I am leading a Women’s Bible Study starting this week on spiritual warfare.  And during the past week or so I have also been reading the book of Ecclesiastes. 

What ties all of these things together?  The enemy is always on the alert for ways to distract and devour us (1 Peter 5:8) – but God is always sovereign and has already won the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57).  Finding the balance in our minds between these two truths is the key to daily peace and joy.  Let me explain.

When bad or difficult things happen, it is easy to take our focus off of God and look exclusively at what went wrong.  It is also possible to focus too heavily on the enemy’s work in our world.  Satan does inspire evil in the hearts of all of us, and he seeks to destroy anything good that God is doing in the world and in our lives.  He leads people astray into false ideas that leave God out of the picture; and he attacks our thoughts, our bodies, our relationships, and any other area that we are vulnerable.  Focusing only on the enemy’s work can lead us to a place of despair like that expressed in portions of Ecclesiastes.

But that is only one side of the story.  Although the writer of Ecclesiastes often sounds depressed, he also has given us a few verses with strong support of God’s sovereignty – as well as reminding us that God has put eternity in our hearts.  Even in his despair, the writer acknowledges God’s hand in everything and his ultimate victory over evil – no matter what life looks like at any given point in time.  It is a good lesson for all of us.

I know the enemy wants to use the events in my life over the past few weeks to distract me from being fully prepared to help other women learn how to fight him off with the armor of God.  I know he wants me to come to battle unequipped and frustrated.  I know he wants me to rely on my own strength to be ready for this week’s Bible study lesson, and I know he wants me to doubt God’s sovereignty over everything and his ability and desire for me to be victorious.  It’s the oldest tool that the enemy uses – “Did God really say . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1).

But faith demands that I choose to look beyond the enemy’s attacks and fully trust God for the outcome.  God is on my side, so who or what can be against me?  I have felt overwhelmed by the things that are out of my control recently; but God is neither surprised by these events nor overwhelmed.  He just wants me to lean into him and receive his joy and peace and the strength to complete the tasks at hand.  Feeling overwhelmed and out of control is actually a really great place to be – because it keeps me out of the way so God can do his work and shine!