Making more Plans

I have been talking about how things don't always work out the way they are planned. As you know this year definitely did not go as planned for me and my family. All that is now behind us. Now what do we do? Do we give up and just hide out from here on? Well some people may do that, but I am not one of them.
So how do I move forward? I start by seeking God's will. Most of us usually know what we think we should do, but we have to make sure it is God's will. How do I do that? I pray and read the Bible to look for answers. God answers prayers. He may not answer them as quick as we like sometime, but he will answer them. The second thing I do is talk to my wife. If I think go and she thinks no go, there must be a reason. We make sure we both agree on what we are going to do.
Okay now that we believe God and us are on the same page we move forward.
What if we are wrong? Can that happen? Yes it can, because sometimes we want something bad enough we don't listen to God real good. Does that mean we will crash and burn? Not necessarily. God has it in control and if we are wrong, he will point it out and you will know. It is just a matter of listening.

Here is what God told the Isrealites:
11 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. 29:11 (NIV2011)
Do you think we can apply this verse to us? I think if we are living for God we can. If we are living like we want? Probably not so much.

Things don't always go as planned!

Last time I wrote I was talking about how sometimes we get ready for something and it doesn't happen. Well this has been quite the year so far. Remember how we got rained out first race? Well the following week didn't go so well either. The weather was great but on practice day I crashed and broke my leg. Talk about things that turn out different then planned. Because of this other then riding a couple of practices I have not done any racing this year. The good news is that I am almost totally healed and riding last week did not irritate my leg. Sweet.
We don't always know why things happen the way they do. I sure don't know why I had to get hurt again (this wasn't my first time). So what do we do? We have to trust that things happen for a reason. That is easier said then applied. How do you do in situations like that? Usually it isn't that hard for me, but this time I really struggled, because it really messed things up. So what do I do? I keep reminding myself of what God promises in his word and I hang on to those promises. Does that explain why some things happen? No, but it does help us deal with them. In the end we know that God has our best in mind. It could have just been an accident, because Motocross is dangerous. You just never know.

Getting ready for nothing

Have you ever gotten ready to do something and then when you get all ready it gets cancelled? That's where I am today. Tomorrow is supposed to be the first State Race for this year. I prepared my sermon for church last night, then today I got the trailer and everything ready. The bike just needed loaded, but of course on the golf cart the starter solenoid wire broke so I got to fix it. After some custom engineering it was fixed and I got everything ready to go. I did forget to mention that its been raining this week and the track owner was still trying to make a decision to see if it was sensible to try to have the race. Well I finished, I cleaned up and then I got online to see if the race was on and guess what? It's cancelled. Bummer.
Some of us may feel this way about Jesus coming back. You keep hearing people preach about it. And the Bible definitely talks a lot about it. We get ready and wait. We get ready and wait. We get ready and wait. But Jesus doesn't come. What do you think? Do you think it may have been cancelled like the race was cancelled?
Don't get bummed out. It has not been cancelled, we just have to have patience. Lets see what the Bible says:
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV2011)

So what do you think. Has it been cancelled? Praise God it hasn't. No chance of that. He is just waiting for our friends to come to know Jesus. Awesome.

Snow is not one of my favorite things

I am in Chicago today and it is snowing. Typical Winter storm. As I was driving along I was thinking (yes I do that at times), snow can really mess with your plans. For that matter, it can completely make you turn your entire schedule around. This has been a very mild Winter and we thought we were about through it. To our surprise the weather had other ideas. This is the 3rd snow storm I have been in in less then two weeks and yes it has turned my schedule around.
So what am I trying to say with all this? This is typically how things go, you never know for sure what is going to happen. In the same way we live our lives and if we are reasonably careful things go a long pretty smooth, just like our mild Winter we were just going through. Then without a warning something happens and everything gets turned upside down. All of a sudden we are scrambling to try to make it through what is coming at us. Well just like you deal with the snow, knowing it will go away, so are our other issues in our lives. They come and we deal with them and get through them. As my younger sister once told me, the Bible says "it came to pass" it did not come to stay. But even so knowing all that, there are times it is hard to make it through those times.
Over the last year, one of the things I have been working on is my trust in God. A lot of us talk about trusting God, but do we really do it? I used to say it, but a lot of times did not really do it. The thing I learned most this last year is that when you truly trust God you start seeing him work in your life like you have never seen before. So what is the point? Be it a snow storm or something bigger. Don't worry and live your faith. It truly does work. God has our best in mind.