Agreeing with Ann

In the book 1000 Gifts, Ann Voskamp wrote raw and real about a time when she wanted to write the story differently, but later concluded "There's a reason I am not writing the story and God is.  He knows how it all works out, where it all leads, what it all means.  I don't."

When I was in Florida a few months back, I went to a ladies Bible study and some of those gals were facing hard spelled out in capital letters.  That night the leader directed us to consider the character of God from the book of Psalms (thank you Mrs. B)...hearts softened and hope flooded in.  Somehow in the presence of God, hard becomes doable as we trust Him to be with us, to hold us, to carry us through and to use it for His glory and for our good as He has promised to do.

Man plans his ways, but God directs his steps...we live out the story that God is Authoring.  If we remember He is good, that He loves us with incomprehensible passion, and His glory is overflowing in an incredible redemption story, then we can handle all the times that we wake up thinking the day is going to look one way and it ends up very different than we imagined.  Even when broken bones or cancer or loss of job or death of a loved one or some other excruciating pain is involved.

We've had a week that played out very differently than the one we had planned, but it flowed exactly as our Father designed it.  Last Monday I felt ready to be swallowed up by my "to do" list. I popped a note to a friend that morning saying "Life turned crazy busy...too busy in fact. Methinks I need to downsize my to-do list. As soon as I find the machete, I'm going to start chopping."  I was dizzy with activity and felt so pressed upon by so many tasks that seemed urgent.  And that afternoon, my sweet 82 year old mother in law fell and broke her femur, leading to a partial hip replacement surgery the following day.  All of a sudden, the to do list didn't even matter.  I guess God took His machete and whacked my list for me.  Weeks like this can be very clarifying...what is really important and what isn't?  Would I have written this into Pat's story or ours?  No way...who asks for broken bones and long recoveries and serious alterations of plans?  But there is no doubt in my mind that God has written it in and that He is using it for our good and His glory. 

I agree with Ann: "There's a reason I am not writing the story and God is.  He knows how it all works out, where it all leads, what it all means.  I don't."