Your Flexible Friend
I guess it’s happened to us all many times over the last year. Those plans for seeing your family at Christmas, that holiday that you were going to go on, your long awaited family birthday party, all cancelled or delayed. You expected life to go one way….. and it went another. Time and time again Covid has scuppered our plans.
Let me give you a personal example. Last October, Emma and I
reached our 10th wedding anniversary. Well, all through our 10 years
of marriage we had been saving up some pennies and looking ahead to what we
were going to do for our 10th anniversary. In 2018, 2019, we were
saying, “what shall we do in October 2020, a romantic getaway to Europe? A
special holiday in the sun for a few days?” Well in October last year, we
weren’t going anywhere, except Huntingdon! Plans put on hold.
But with everything in life, there’s 2 sides to every story.
When something goes wrong like that, do you look at the down side, or the
bright side?
Yes, over the last year we have learned the hard way that as
the Bible puts it, “we don’t even know what tomorrow will bring” (James 4:14).
But alongside the disappointments of plans frustrated, I guess everyone has learned
flexibility.
We’ve learned to say, we’ll see what the restrictions allow. Or,
this is plan A, but if it can’t happen, here’s plan B.
Like the “flexible friend” credit card of Mr Bean, we’ve had
to learn to bend. And perhaps if all of this has made us remember that we
aren’t the masters of our own destinies, that we are not ultimately in control,
but God is that’s not a bad thing.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “Many are the plans
in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs
19:21).
Next time your plans are scuppered, don’t look down, look up-
remember that God is in control, and that he might be training and teaching you
flexibility. Perhaps he’s teaching you to trust in Him- a good and kind
heavenly father, who’s ultimate plans to save the world through Jesus Christ will
never be scuppered.
Flexibility. Oh- and our 10th wedding anniversary?
Yes it was put on hold in October 2020, but last week, May 2021 we enjoyed a
lovely couple of delayed days over half term in East Sussex. God is kind! It’s
good to hold things lightly, be flexible, and trust in Him. Thanks for
listening.
Charlie Newcombe 9/6/21