God Redirects Plans According to His Sovereign and Ordained Will.Proverbs 16:9 9 The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
לֵ֣ב אָ֭דָם יְחַשֵּׁ֣ב דַּרְכֹּ֑ו וַֽ֝יהוָ֗ה יָכִ֥ין צַעֲדֹֽו׃
This weekend I planned to surprise my bride by taking her to the beach for a two-day camping trip. I’m not much of a camper (massive understatement!) so I thought I’d gain significant “brownie points” in planning, strategizing, organizing, and following through with this trip. One thing, however, I forgot to reserve our campsite online. Believe it or not, I had the webpage on my browser for about a week and I kept forgetting to reserve that campsite (which is very unlike me—normally I do these things way in advance!). So I finally got around to it the night before the trip (Sun night) but they wouldn’t let me reserve the campsite 24 hours in advance. So I had to call them the next day. Monday morning I tried to call them in the early morning but they didn’t open till 9am and we’d be in the Master’s Chapel by that point. So, needless to say, I had not reserved the campsite (nor paid for it!) yet.
Eventually, I told Elizabeth our plans and we were both excited! So, Monday morning arrives and we drove up to the Master’s College for chapel. It was raining on our drive there and Elizabeth asked me if I really wanted to go beach camping and I said “Of course” (what else could I say?). Needless to say, during chapel Kiah was a bit rambunctious so he was running around outside with Elizabeth while I was in chapel listening to the sermon. A man who works at Master’s was heading to chapel (quite late!) and saw Elizabeth and they began to talk. He is a good friend of ours and asked what we were up to. Elizabeth told him that we were spending the morning at Master’s for chapel and then we were heading to the beach for a camping trip. He said: “in the rain?!” Elizabeth responded: “I think so.” To which he then replied: “No, you should stay in a beach house!” “Ha,” Elizabeth said, “We’d love that but we don’t have the funds for that.” The man kindly replied: “You can stay in our beach house—for free!” To which Elizabeth immediately replied: “sounds like a plan!”
Then after chapel they came up and told me of our new plans that God had sovereignly orchestrated (all because Kiah was a bit cranky and was running around outside during chapel). Then, after chapel we took some of our college students to lunch and then departed for the beach house.
It was an amazing two days of rest, relaxation, Monday night football, and food! I had some of the best fish & chips I’ve ever had at the Ventura Harbor. Then on Tuesday we ate at a hole in the wall Mexican joint in Ventura which was just excellent!
Looking back, here are some ways that God sovereignly changed our plans:
1. God prevented me from making the online camping reservations and paying the fees online because He had a better plan for us—staying in a beach home for free!
2. God allowed Kiah to be a bit cranky so he couldn’t sit still through chapel. So he was outside working off the energy by running around.
3. While Elizabeth and Kiah were outside, God allowed our friend to be late to chapel and ask what we were up to that week.
4. God worked it out that the beach house was available for those specific days (the day after we left another family was going to the home to use it for the weekend)!
5. God brought rain and heavy wind that would have made it quite difficult to have a bonfire—much less, erect a tent and stay warm!
Again, Proverbs 16:9 9 The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. And I’m thankful for it.
