His Purpose Prevails – Proverbs 19:21

Praying Over the City at Caribou Coffee (757 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN).

December 31, 2018

I woke early to get to the gym to find all the lights off. I understand it’s New Year’s Eve, but it’s not yet the holiday, right? A closure on the first of the year because many people will not be rising early after being up so late, but the same on the eve? I was grateful to learn they’ll be open at 8 a.m. today. I haven’t been there through this whole holiday week and I need it.

Isn’t that how life is? We have a plan. We have an expectation. We’ve got it all worked out and we arrive to find it’s not the way we’d mapped it all out. I remember when I was younger, maybe 16 or 17, I could not imagine making it to the millennium. It seemed so far off. Granted, I would have only been in my early 30’s in 1999-2000, yet I would tell people I sensed I wouldn’t be around then. This foreshadowing was utterly baseless and reflected my own in ability to comprehend how vast and wondrous the future can be.

Thinking back to the me before, I had no idea I would be here today—NONE. I had some of my own plans, yes. I wanted to be married, have kids, a career, and certainly have healthy connections to friends and family. However, when I think back to the plans I had and where I am today, there is an amazing shift that happened that made the reality of this future, the one I’m living, different than all I’d planned. Inside the reality of this amazing shift, I realize that even though I don’t have all I wanted in this future, it is way better than I’d planned.

Please don’t get me wrong. This future isn’t complete bliss. I’ve had much heartache and difficult times. Some of the bad things that have happened to me were immeasurably more difficult and heartbreaking than I’d ever envisioned in my future. These things were not part of my plan, and just like some of the wonderful things that I’d never considered into my future, these experiences were things I could not have comprehended touching my life. Some of them were downright horrible, yet this future, with all its flaws and lacking, is immeasurably better than I could have mastered or envisioned.

How can that be? How can a life, without all that I desire which also includes much heartache, be better than the one I could have handcrafted for myself? It’s weird, and hopefully you are the same, but I see the blessings in all of it. That heartache gave me perspective I would never have without it. It’s helped make me an advocate for others and certainly gave me more compassion, understanding, and mercy. It’s also made me so much more grateful for the good things in my life. It helps to keep me balanced, positive, and enriched.

I’m not always that way. I have my hard times and my pity parties. What puts the positive perspective on all of this is when I put God into the center of it. When I trust His will for my life. When I believe His plans are the best plans. That He’ll get me through this and He’s always there for me. Since I’ve persevered with Him near me, I know I can get through anything. These things will happen whether I accept them or fight it. Whether I’m positive or negative, stuff is going to happen. The only real thing I can control in any of this is how I handle it.

It reminds me of the following Bible verse:

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

It is the Lord’s purpose that prevails—these things aren’t happening to me. They are happening for me. There is a purpose and a plan, and as I’ve already witnessed, His will for my life is infinitely better than my designs.

Dearest Heavenly Father (Mother), I have my plans. I have my designs. I often pray to you for my will to be done, but Lord, I need your help to stay constant in your will. You always have the best in mind for me. May I always trust you and your way. May your purpose prevail so that I may be of maximum use to you and to my fellow earth partners. In Your Mighty and Holy Name…

The New Year is about to ring in. May you be blessed this coming year and every year after. If you have prayer requests for me, lay them on me. For now, I best get to the gym. Love you.