Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
I led a missions trip to an orphanage in Bolivia during my sophomore year of college. After six months of planning, training, putting a team together and fundraising, we set off for Bolivia! Four days into the trip, I got bit by a (potentially rabid) stray dog and had to be flown back to the US to be treated for rabies. Talk about disagreeing with God’s plans. I did ALL that work expecting to serve Him and some kids in Bolivia just to be sent home early and greeted by five rounds of really painful shots.
I’m so glad that week went according to God’s plans and not mine. On the way home, I met a Bolivian woman in the airport who was on her way to visit my town in Florida. I invited her to my church’s small group the following week, and she came. Since that day, she’s moved to Florida with her two kids, and we’ve become closer than friends; we’ve become family.
Make plans but have enough faith and trust in the Lord to let those plans change, fall through, or flat-out crash and burn. Look to God in those moments and let your paused plans become God’s perfect purpose.
When things don’t go according to your plans, do you faithfully look for the ways God may be giving you purpose in this new place?