This is Not What I Planned
Can we really find peace when life
doesn’t work out the way we planned?
This is a part of a larger series. If you missed the other posts in this series, you can find them here:
Week 1 – Peace in the Unknown
Week 2 – What if I Fail?
Week 3: This is NOT What I Planned
The planner in me loves to see a calendar with every event written in pink ink with hearts, scrolling doodles, and bold underlining of the important things.
The longer I live, I’m learning plans don’t always pan out the way we think they should.
Sometimes what’s written in my planner gets completely thrown out the window and there I sit with a furrowed brow wondering why I ever wrote it down in the first place.
Any other planning loving people out there?
How do we have peace when life reveals unexpected twists and turns? What about those times when life is completely paused by tragic trauma or an accident that leaves us speechless and without a plan?
We could panic, shrivel up and hope it goes away. But when we wake up and realize it is real and this is still our life, it’s hard to know how to live in peace when life unexpectedly turns out different than we thought.
When peace is stripped from the depths of our souls and we don’t know how to plan for the future, there is only one place to turn.
It might sound trite and too simple to truly satisfy, but somehow it does.
Jesus is the only way to peace.
What does that even mean? The way? How can we get on that road? How do we get from the place of despair to the way that Jesus speaks about?
We open up our shredded hearts and we let Jesus do the mending.
We trust that though our troubles are not healed overnight, He has the power to set us free from the things that bind us.
We believe that Jesus is the healer of every heart and we cling to Him when our souls throb with the cares of this world.
When life isn’t all you planned it would be, there can still be peace because peace isn’t wrapped up in a bow with sparkles and rainbows.
Peace was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger in a stall with animals. Peace was ridiculed and beaten when He claimed to be the King. Peace was killed and placed in a tomb sealed so tight with a boulder and guarded by soldiers.
But Peace rose again and lives in heaven right now.
Peace is Jesus!
When you start feeling like your plans have compromised your peace, claim Peace for who He is not what life feels like.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
If you are overwhelmed by the way life is going, turn your eyes to the one who holds the future. HE LIVES!
We won’t dress up in our Easter Sunday clothes every day this week and post the cuteness for our friends to see, but we can still find peace in our Risen King!
Peace isn’t about how good we have it, or how great we want others to think we have it.
Peace is about giving everything we are to Jesus and letting Him use our messed up lives for His glory. When we give Jesus our lives, He proves His love to us. Peace is found in His presence.
Love & Blessings,
Micah