Thomas Rhett, a country artist, has a song called, Life Changes, and it's got a fun ring to it. I want you to focus on the, you make your plans and you hear God laughing...
"Ain't it funny how life changes
You wake up, ain't nothing the same and life changes
You can't stop it, just hop on the train and
You never know what's gonna happen
You make your plans and you hear God laughing"
But that line, you make your plans and you hear God laughing... that has so much more depth than a fun, up beat country song is meant to provide.
How many times do we try to make our own plans in life? My wife and I are guilty and I'm sure you are too.
Whether it's a job, a house or even a financial decision.
Sometimes we believe that we know what's best for us. We know how our lives are supposed to turn out. We got it all figured out. No one knows us, better than us.
Until WE don't.
We get into that job that we thought was the one, but it turned out to be one of the worst decisions we've ever made.
Or what if it happens to work out and the job is great! But because we weren't patient, because we thought we knew best, we missed an even better opportunity?
How will you ever know? How do you discern opportunities in life, and whether or not they are the right ones at that particular time, or at all?
Praying, Listening and having Faith.
Praying to the God that already has it all figured out for us. Having Faith to believe such is true. And Listening to that feeling we get when faced with touch decisions.
Have you ever had to say no to something that you were positive about? In the face of adversity, will you be able to say with 100% confidence, no, this isn't the one for me, i'll pass.
Not necessarily a job, but anything. It's hard to imagine these things if you've never been through it. And trust me, i am not proclaiming to be this, "wise beyond my years" dood, or someone who even has anything figured out. But - I am a failure, I have failed because I couldn't say no.
A few years ago now, wow, it's hard to believe it's been almost four years now, I lost my job. I was a contractor for the Navy at Patuxent River. I had a highly classified job, one like I never knew existed, and many of you never will either. Don't worry, you aren't missing much.
Anyways, I took something out of the space i was working in, nothing classified or important or detrimental to National Security, but I couldn't say no. Someone found out before I could return it, reported it to authorities and I was out. Escorted out by the security officer, taken to NCIS police HQ on base, questioned, gave a statement and was immediately debriefed from the program I was working on, stripped of my CAC (Common Access Card) and sent on my way.
I walked to my car with my then Project Manager who had a box of my belongings in his car, ready to hand off to me as my eventual farewell.
This all happened in December of 2014, 5 months after having our first kid, and 5 months after buying our first home.
Ain't it funny how life changes? Not in this moment. The only feelings that set in were fear and doubt. But we did hold fast to something bigger than those two things combined.
We had our Faith.
In the midst of something like this going on in your life, it's hard to say, "everything happens for a reason". But it does, and we did.
Looking back now, I got to spend extra time with my new beautiful daughter, Adelynn. I got to witness my wife, the greatest human that God has blessed me with, be my rock in one of the toughest times in our young marriage. I got to grind harder than I had ever grinded before (not the dancing type of grinding, the, "I'm not really sure where my next paycheck will come from" type of grinding. Trying to find freelance IT jobs while at the same time, looking for new employment.
Life can change in an instant, and you will almost never be ready for it. But, as long as you have Faith, and trust that everything does happen for a reason. We truly learned that you can't waste time trying to connect your dots in life looking forwards, things only truly make sense when you can look back on them and have those, "look at God" moments.
“…For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
Thanks for reading,
Strahl.