Saturday, 21 May 2011

• INTERRUPTIONS IN MY PLANS?

  For the past few weeks, I have been traveling two hundred miles per day to and from work (this is a temporary situation).   I have several men riding with me, and we try to determine the best route to take each day - depending upon weather and rush-hour traffic.  Most days, our commute goes smoothly enough and we get home at a reasonable hour.   But then some days there will be a traffic jam or accident that causes us to be delayed.   A car will cut in front of us and we have to slow down, we get stuck in one lane and can't seem to find an opening that will allow us to change to a faster lane, etc.  Such was the case yesterday.  It took nearly an hour to drive one mile on the interstate.   What we found was that a church van had been rear-ended by a truck, and that was the cause of the delay.  It seemed that there were no injuries, so I was glad for that.  But that got me thinking once again about how those interruptions change the course of our lives.  

  Today in my daily devotions was a story of another man, Abraham, who had an interruption in his life - a fairly small interruption, but one that was recorded for us to read in the book of Genesis:

  "Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.  So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.  Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.   And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.”
  They said, “Do as you have said.”    
    So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.”  And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it.  So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.    
   Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”   
  So he said, “Here, in the tent.”    
   And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”   
  (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)" (Genesis 18:1-10)

  Notice that Abraham was not at all peeved at the interruption in his daily life.   He most likely had many things to do that day, as in every day.   His servants were busily doing their chores, etc.   It would seem that perhaps Abraham was a bit more attuned to the workings of the Lord in His life than what we are because he immediately set about accommodating himself to these men and serving them.  He showed no impatience whatever.   How long it took to prepare that meal for them, we can only surmise; but this was much longer than a wait in a traffic jam.

  It turns out that this was a divine encounter with messengers from the Lord (or maybe the Lord Himself and two angels?).  There were two life-changing messages for Abraham.  One, the promise of a son and heir at the advanced age of this couple, and the other, the impending judgment on Sodom where Abraham's nephew was living.

  Now, I know that the small inconvenience of a driver cutting us off in traffic is nothing like the amount of trouble that Abraham went to in this incident, but still, we do have the tendency to think that OUR plans and OUR happiness are too important to be interrupted by someone else.   *Would we have been too busy to have stopped to help the man along the road who had been beaten and robbed?*

  While thinking over these things, I just "happened" to read the following passage in the New Testament which at first glance may seem to be unrelated to Abraham and his visitors until I also realized that MY plans come from my mind and my circumstances and don't take into account God's plans.   Could it be that God is behind all the "interruptions" in my plans?   This is what I read:

  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:3-14)

  It would seem that my life is not an interruption in God's plans - my life is included in His plans.   Those wonderful times that He "interrupts" me are in keeping with His plans for me.   I am so thankful that God cares so much for me that he doesn't allow MY plans to interfere with HIS plans!!

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