Subject to Change

It was not what I had planned.  It was not my preferred use of my early morning hours – which I had reserved for rest/sleep.  But kidney stone pain is a very effective alarm clock.  When that pain wakes you up at 4 a.m., there is no hitting the snooze button.  It demands attention. It demands action.  It does not matter that you did not plan to get up at 4 a.m., those planned extra hours of sleep are now “subject to change.”  That was Thursday of this week.

I added this tag-line to some of my plans recently.  It was earlier in the week while I was awaiting the birth of this little basketball with spurs commonly referred to as a kidney stone.  This is my 4^th or 5^th kidney stone experience.  Anytime you have a kidney stone you always write your plans in pencil.  You just never know when you might be making a trip to the ER.  Grant announced “subject to change” sounded like a title for one of my blog posts.  Grant you were right – prophetic even.  I know my kids are really writers when they start thinking in terms of blog post titles and what’s tweetable.

A mature person will have plans.  A controlling person will be frustrated when unforeseen circumstances change their plan.  But a wise, mature person will have flexibility.  As my Pastor, Todd Wright shared with me years ago, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.” 

Let’s look at this logically. God is in control.  We are not God.  We are not in control.  But don’t worry, God is still in control.  God has a plan.  We have a plan (hopefully).  God’s plan is always better than our plan.  “’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 higher than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  And God is still in control, even through the uncertainty and pain accompanying the passage of a kidney stone.

We don’t just shut down, just because of uncertainty.  Last Saturday I went to Grant’s graduation and then we had his graduation party at our house.  Sunday, I led life group and attended the worship service.  I successfully mediated a case on Monday.  On Tuesday, I won two Social Security disability cases, and took my family to the fabulous Fox Theater to hear Celtic Woman.  This Friday, I went to my niece, Erin-Faye’s college graduation.  I had a few twinges of pain during the day, but I went right along with my plans, subject to change.  I could have curled up in bed in a fetal position just waiting for the severe pain to hit me.  But I had a lot of life to live.  Some people let uncertainty in life dictate their actions – or maybe more appropriately, their inaction.  They passively wait for life to happen.  They are reactive rather than proactive.  Proverbs speaks to this sort of fear-based life, “The lazy man says, ‘There is a lion outside!  I shall be slain in the streets!’” (Proverbs 22:13).  Now I’m sure there were probably more lions in the streets of ancient Israel than there are today in the US, but come on – it’s not like it was a safari in Africa!  Maybe he got that one from the Queen of Sheba.

My daughter, Ashton, said “subject to change” sounded like the caption for her year in 2013.  That is an understandable viewpoint.  Ashton is an extreme world champion planner.  But this year has certainly been subject to change.  She was invited to be in the Passion choir at this year’s Passion Conference in Atlanta.  As a side-note, she appears several times in the David Crowder music video for his song, My Beloved http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=0FF1CJNU.  She had plans one night to stay with a friend in Atlanta after a New Year’s Eve party somehow connected to Passion but those plans fell through that evening and she had to stay at her college roommate’s home in Suwanee.  The rest of the conference she was going to stay with a relative one of her friends, just outside Atlanta.  But after staying only a short time, she recognized the basement apartment had mold issues and she could not stay.  So, she changed plans and commuted from home.  Then, upon her return to the duplex she was renting with several friends in Athens to start classes for the Spring semester at UGA, she learned the mold remediation we had done earlier in the year did not take care of the problem.  She started feeling sick again and was actually considering withdrawing from UGA for a semester.  However, we prayed hard and God revealed not only a suitable apartment with hardwood floors (less susceptible to mold), but also another wonderful Christian roommate, who needed a six month lease and a roommate.  Her new apartment has a beautiful park behind it, with a peaceful creek just off her back balcony.  Ashton has learned a lot about being flexible with her plans over the past 4+ months.  She did not quit.  She pressed on with Plan B, living her life “subject to change.”

In the book of James we are given instructions about living life subject to change.  “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes, away.  Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). This is probably a source for the old saying, “Lord willing, and the creek don’t rise.” 

Well, later today I plan to go in to the office and do a little work, and later go to Erin’s graduation party…Lord willing and the stone don’t start to pass!  Everything is subject to change – not just when you have a kidney stone – but every day.  Just remember, God is in control.  We are not God.  We are not in control.  But don’t worry; God is still in control, even when it is only chaos which seems to reign.

What is your favorite or most memorable experience with “subject to change?”