Have you ever noticed how your best laid plans can fall apart at the last moment?
This happened to me a week ago. For a year I’d been planning to take the Lifestyle Medicine Boards on December 10. Over the last couple months I’d been studying hard and putting everything else on hold (including my weekly posts to this blog). All those hours spent studying, memorizing countless facts, were about to bear fruit. Then I got sick!
It started the week before, with upper respiratory symptoms and body aches. Thankfully COVID testing was negative, but I still was feeling wiped out. I missed a couple days of work and spent a lot of time just resting and pushing fluids.
By last Thursday I was feeling better, but was still coughing and sneezing. I contacted the testing center and they informed me I would not be allowed to sit for the exam because of my symptoms. I would have to put it off for another year. I was so disappointed!
This kind of thing happens to all of us at one time or another. Plans fall through, people disappoint, sickness throws a wrench in our plans. It can be hard to deal with, but when we realize we serve a God who loves us with an everlasting love and who “in all things…works for the good of those who love him…” we can find peace, even in the midst of disappointment. (Romans 8:28 NIV).
I don’t know why I didn’t get to take my boards this year. Maybe I wasn’t as ready as I thought or maybe there was danger for me in traveling that day. I’ll probably never know the reason, but I do know one thing – the same God who sent His Son to be born in a manger and to die for my sins on a cross knows the end from the beginning. If I let Him, He “will instruct [me] and teach [me] in the way [I] should go…” (Psalm 32:8)
He will do the same for you. His plans for you are “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11). Your own plans may have gone awry, but rest assured, your “steps are directed by the Lord.” (Proverbs 20:24).
Even when things don’t turn out the way you planned, remember God is in control. Today and everyday, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6). He will guide you “along the right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:3)
God loves you, my friend. Trust Him! He’ll never let you down!