When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn
What do you do when things don't go to plan? How do you respond?
Well, I'll tell you how I respond. Once the realisation sinks in and the shock wears off, I start to get irritated. Did this have to happen now? Why couldn't it have happened some other time? Entitlement and arrogance boil beneath the surface and bursts through either with complaining or sulking.
I don't have to think that far back to remember how this feels because this is exactly how I am feeling right now. This past week has felt like nothing has gone right. I had purposefully scheduled the booster shot for after my assignments so that I could take a couple of days to rest. What I had not expected was how much it would affect me and how crippling the side effects would be. Hot and cold flushes, feverish, weak and unable to do anything but sleep.
On top of that, what I initially thought was just a pesky mosquito bite on my knee turned into a painfully swollen red patch that brought me to the emergency department. A delayed allergic reaction that had turned into a skin infection. At first, I was optimistic that it would go away after a couple of days but when my skin started to burn and swell, I knew something was up. Suddenly, plans were thrown out the window and I was confined to resting at home for a very, very long week. Even as I write all this, I can feel myself becoming more irritated. Why did this have to happen?
Yet I know somewhere in this, there is a lesson to be learnt from God.
If it is the Lord's will.
When things are going well (as you have planned), it is easy to think that you are in control of your destiny, that you are invincible and that you can do whatever your heart desires. It is a humbling reminder when life does not go to plan. The passage that comes to mind is James 4:13-17.
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
I am reminded that ultimately God is in control and I am not. If anything, these past few years have proven this very point. Who could have predicted that a virus would sweep through the world and cause so much death, chaos and anxiety in its path? Who knew that it would cause the whole world to stop, that businesses would have to halt their operations and people would be forced to stay in their homes? The unexpected put us back in our place, reminding us of the frailty of life and that ultimately we are not in control. God is.
In your anger, do not sin.
When life does not go to plan and when the unexpected happens, it is easy to be angry. In my case as I wrote the introduction for this post, I became so frustrated that I had to take a breather and stop writing because it was only fanning the fire within me. Sometimes when I'm really angry, I lash out at the people around me and am extremely rude and disrespectful. Ephesians 4:26-27 reminds us that when we are the most volatile, sin is not the way to go.
26 “In your anger do not sin”[d]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
Help us God.
When I consider how easy it is for my heart to think that I am in control, I feel ashamed. I know that how I make plans and how I respond when my plans fall through demonstrate what I am convinced of in those moments.
While there may be practical ways I can remind myself of these truths, I know that ultimately change needs to happen from within. Only God can transform the desires of my heart, to let go of control and to trust in Him. Only God can help me to live as He desires.
If you are in the same boat as me, I hope this prayer is for you as much as it is for me.
Heavenly Father,
May it be clear to all that you are the Creator and you reign over all.
As I make plans for today and tomorrow, help me to know that these plans only come to fruition if it is your will.
Help me to trust in your purpose above my own.
Help me not be entitled or angry when life takes an unexpected turn.
Help me not to sin in my anger.
I ask all this in Jesus' name,
Amen.