Weekend Plans

I had such nice plans for the day, but instead I was on my hands and knees on a hard, cold floor.  Goose bumps on my arms and beads of sweat on my forehead, I felt my stomach muscles involuntarily convulse again and too late remembered to sweep hair away from my face.  I stretched out on the tile floor too weak for the moment to crawl back to bed. 

As the hours slowly ticked by, my body began to dehydrate and with that came the aching muscles and joints.  I tried to lie still, to make it stop; but the flu is not to be denied its hours of torture. 

Oh, I’d had nice plans for the day alright, but they changed the moment I woke up Saturday morning with an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

I reminded God (because He so much needs me to remind Him of things) that I was supposed to have a friend over to my house and I was expected to teach Sunday School and play the piano for church the following day.

You are replaceable, Laura.  I think I can handle this one without you.  The message was as clear as if God had said it out loud. 

And so, in those few minutes, right after an episode where you feel there may be hope and your stomach has settled for a brief span of time, I made a few quick phone calls.  Soon my company was cancelled, a substitute teacher was found, and my good friend Stephanie had agreed to play the piano for me.

After a short eternity (nine or ten hours) everything settled, and I spent the rest of that day, the following day, and the day after stretched out on my couch with a blanket, a pillow, and a bottle of Gatorade.  I spent hours gazing through the bay window and marveled at the ethereal light as it filtered through the greenery down into my living room.  I spent more time than I had in a long time thinking about God and the gracious way in which He has dealt with my life.  Isaiah 55:8-9 crept into my mind. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” 

My plans for the weekend weren’t bad; in fact, everything I’d planned was good; yet God decided to change them. Over the years I’ve struggled against God when I didn’t understand why He changed the great plans I had made for my life, but God in His infinite wisdom knows why His plans are better for me.  Because He is God, and I am simply Laura, I am able to rest in the knowledge that God’s way is better than mine.

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