Last Sunday the weather was really bad and we got a great deal of snow. I was scheduled to substitute as a pastor for a small church about an hour away. As I prepared to get ready I received a text from the church that they were cancelling due to the weather. I was relieved not to have to deal with the snow and driving! So I went from my “church clothes” to sweats and adjusted from Plan A to Plan B! Nothing on the schedule, ease and comfort ahead (except for shoveling!) and relaxation! I like that open time frame in a day when nothing is scheduled. I love the freedom to go and do and be without regard to an appointment or heavy schedule. It makes me wonder why I load up that schedule or overbook myself sometimes.
Are you that way? Is Plan A to be busy all the time, and if you are not busy do you wonder what you should be doing? Yesterday I looked at my house, my to-do list, the many books I wanted to read and laundry that needed done. So, I found a movie on TV that I had recorded and decided the list could wait. Plan B full steam ahead! I think that’s a good example of self-care and we all need more of that. I’ve met many people that give me that glossed-over look when I mention taking care of yourself. You are the only self you are going to have and I pray you in the busy-ness of life will put self-care high up on the list. Please do, you are worth it, you are special, you are loved, and you and I have Divine Favor upon us. We are forgiven, free, and we can follow Ps. 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God”.
What about when Plan B describes our lives? Marriages fail, wayward children or grandchildren, more month that money. We have our expectations and know that Plan A is the right one and the right way to do something. I know that lifetime Plan A’s don’t always work. Around the hospital environment we see health issues all the time and people who are sick living into Plan “B”. Could we say that life is a constant adjustment to life itself? What about Plan “C” or even Plan “Z”?
Sometimes we feel there is no option, no Plan A and feel adrift and alone. Then we remember, God is with us and everything is OK and we can take care of ourselves. It’s OK. We are OK. God is enough in Jesus for any and every plan. Amen.
Pastor Doug Givan
Chaplain
St. Vincent Clay (Brazil)
St. Vincent Seton Specialty (Indianapolis)
“It is such a comfort to drop the tangles of life into God’s hands and leave them there.”
-L.B. Cowman
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
