Pastor Mike’s Garage October 27th, 2022
October 28, 2022
Is your day going as planned? How about the week? How about this year for
that matter? While we’re zooming out for the big picture, has your life
gone just as you planned it would either?
This morning I got a phone call. It was one I had been both anticipating
and dreading for a little while now. It was the third such phone call I’ve
had this summer! It was the OR department for the Regina Pasqua hospital
looking to book a date for my other hip surgery. They had first phoned the
third week in July hoping to do it on July 27. I told them at that time I
would need more notice than a week because I lead a pretty full schedule
and also had a harvest coming up. Truth be told I also had the church
camping weekend coming up that I didn’t want to miss but I didn’t think
they might see that as a terribly valid reason for postponing surgery. The
scheduler warned me that I could only defer these calls once. On the second
time they called if I couldn’t go, I’d get bumped to the bottom of the
surgical wait list and it could be years before I get called again. I said
I understood and asked if it were at all possible to try for Oct. She said
she’d see what she could do. Then the first week in September I got another
call from the same number wondering if I’d be available in six days to go
under the knife as they had a cancellation. I hadn’t even started fixing my
equipment in preparation for harvest at that point but luckily the woman on
the other end of the line must have been a farm girl because she had no
problem seeing that as a valid reason. Once again, I asked if it were at
all possible to try and call me the end of Oct for a Nov date? She said
she’d try. Which leads me to this morning’s call. The phone rang, I
immediately recognized the number. The first thing she asked was how my day
was going, I just mentioned that it was going not too bad, I was just at
home getting over Covid. She said that changes everything. Apparently, they
won’t do any surgery until at least seven weeks after a positive Covid
test. I should have kept my big trap shut. The timing was perfect, I would
have been pretty much healed by Christmas, and now I’m probably looking at
another Christmas time, or New year’s surgery!
Isn’t life like that? We make our plans, set our goals, and have our dreams
for what we want to become, acquire, achieve, or accomplish. Yet rarely, if
ever, do things unfold just as we dreamed or planned. But I’ve made enough
trips around the sun to know that, although most of the time ones carefully
made plans do go astray, the very diversions that seemingly wreck our plans
can lead us to blessings we never dreamed of or save us from catastrophes
we never saw coming as we try and perfectly plan our lives out.
Did you ever notice that almost all of the miracles Jesus performed
happened in the midst of distractions as He was on the way somewhere else?
I think there is a powerful life lesson in that. Don’t get so focused on
your plans, dreams, and ambitions, that you lose sight of what God wants to
do, or possibly protect you from, when there is a detour or road block.
That change in plan might just unlock the miraculous! And even if it
doesn’t, don’t fret or stew, God saw this coming, it didn’t catch Him by
surprise. He’s got a plan, He’ll make a way, He’s got it under control! Put
your life in His hands. May as well put your dreams, goals, and ambitions
there as well!
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans you give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah
29:11
Pastor Mike