Be Flexible: God has a plan

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… (Ephesians 1:3).

This was the main point of my pastor's sermon. His sub-points came from the continuing verses but those points aren't my point so I'll stay quiet on those for today. 

At the end of the service he asked us to share why we will bless the Lord. “I will bless the Lord because...”

I answered, “I bless Him because He is sovereign. He is absolutely in control of every detail.” At the time, Jimmy was flying somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea.

I received a text from him a few hours later, “Just landed. No bags. Did not make the flight in. Tuesday maybe.”

Neither his nor Big Daddy R’s luggage had made it onto their plane. Many of us have had this happen; we all know it’s an annoyance more than a catastrophe.

But here’s the deal…

Jimmy and Big Daddy R had to leave their city of arrival in less than 24 hours – a small plane waited to fly them to their remote work site. The bags wouldn’t arrive for a minimum of two days. They couldn’t stay in the city until the bags arrived; the bags wouldn’t have a way to get to them when they did arrive.

Here’s the other deal…

The two men came to do a job – a job they only have a few days to accomplish. Their tools and supplies are in those bags. They can’t complete the job until they have those items.

To be continued…

Remember, nothing random happens in God’s kingdom. If you wonder, read God’s declarations in Job 38-41 to which Job replies, “I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2). Experience has taught us that He has a plan in all that He does. I’m reminded of when I led a group to do a project in Haiti and our luggage also didn’t arrive. By the end of the week God had blessed us to see His mighty work through our divine inconvenience.

So this article will have to be continued. As of right now, we don’t know why Jimmy and Big Daddy R are in Africa to do a job while their tools and supplies sit in Europe somewhere. But we know God has a plan in it – a reason for the annoyance.

As Jimmy stated in a later text, “Be flexible.” The plan was to go, work, and get the job done. God apparently has a different plan. So Jimmy and Big Daddy R will flex with the situation as they seek to accomplish God’s plan – not their own.