All week I've been thinking and writing about plans. So who PLANS to have a major surgery just a few weeks before Christmas? Who PLANS to have major appliances fail at any time? Who PLANS to have news of family members far away in the hospital? I could go on and on about things that happen that we don't plan for. My husband is indeed having a major surgery today. In the midst of this surgery process (2 surgeries, plus recovery) we had our 19 year old furnace system needing to be replaced- it was unusable; we got word yesterday that his brother is also in the hospital in California. Life. All of you have similar things that happen I'm sure. I recall last year a dear friend got a cancer diagnosis right before Thanksgiving. Just yesterday a friend from church lost her husband. If we all started sharing the list would go on for days. Time and problems don't stop because it is Christmas time. We like to plan for a happy, joyous time and we are bombarded with ads and heart wrenching commercials of such a 'feel good' season.
You know what? It is. It is because I choose it to be. The same goes all year - I choose to be joyous and hope-filled because of God. Because of the changes that took place in my heart so many years ago I can be joyous at all times. That doesn't mean I don't get sad and have concern over how in the world will we get through things, it means I have a strength that I can call on when they do. Those that know me well will tell you that I'm not always a 'happy' person. I tend to drift into depression, worry and the 'oh woe is me' mode. However, I am a joyous person. I have never gotten so down that I turned my back on the one true joy that never goes away. It is because of that joy that I can push through when all of these unexpected things upset the plans.
I always have plans, but just like I wrote yesterday, sometimes those plans get sidelined and I have to go on a detour. Today that detour will be sitting in a hospital waiting room while my husband has peripheral artery bypass on his leg. He has known he has vascular disease since his first heart attack as a young man in his 30's. Over the course of the last 40 years he has had heart attacks, stroke, brain surgery, heart surgery, multiple stents and more. He is now 72 and from appearances you would never know his arteries get clogged and chronic pain has crept in. I don't know many people that have endured what he has over the years and still keep going. He is often out working on our property, chopping wood, building tree houses and forts for our granddaughters or battling with chain saws and tools that don't work! Lately the leg pain has thrown a major detour into his plans. Did we plan for this surgery to happen at Christmas time, and the slow recovery he faces? No - but we are thankful for doctors and technology that discovered the problem and will fix it. I expect he will be out climbing ladders and doing 'projects' again before you know it!
Take a look around you today. Someone close to you, or maybe even you, may be appearing to have everything in order this holiday season. Chances are every single person you meet has something that was not in the plan. Those ideal snapshots of perfect Christmas scenes exist in TV land. Hold on to the joy, if you don't know that 'joy' I'm writing about I'd be happy to share.
Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. NLT
Prayer focus for today: Pray for the ''unseen". As you go about your day, notice the people around you and pray for the unseen circumstances that they are facing, the disruption of plans that come in to all of our lives. God knows the need, we just lift them in prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment