The Best Laid Plans

Remember the Mulch! My friend Beth and I had a conversation about how sometimes we make plans, we think we know The Plan, we try and figure out how make plans happen and God has another plan altogether.

This weekend, we had 23 volunteers who were willing to come and help at various times to spread mulch in the flower beds. The city was to deliver mulch on Friday...calls were made, things double checked, plans set. And when I arrived on Saturday morning, there was no mulch.

What??? How could they do this? How could they ruin our plans? You know how hard it is to get 23 people willing and ready to work in the heat of summer?

But much like life, there was a lesson in the destruction of my plans. Once again God took control in order to make sure I got the message. You see, the flower beds had slowly been taken over by weeds. Destructive little things. They would have been difficult to get out once we buried them with mulch and it would have taken twice as much work later to make sure they were gone.

It's like God was trying to tell me "You have to be prepared for change BEFORE change can happen." Change is hard. New things take time and care and planning. And sometimes you are planning for the wrong thing. And it takes God changing your plans to get you back on His path...not yours.

I am someone who has made a lot of plans in my life. Got into situations thinking I knew the plan. I knew why I was put somewhere...only to find out that God meant for me to be there just not for the reasons I thought. Most of the time it was preparation...just like pulling the weeds, I had lessons to learn, my own weeds to pull. Things and ideas that needed to be pulled from my life to make way for new. Things I should not just cover up but instead needed to rid myself of completely.

So what about MY plans? I had to be willing to let my plans fly out the window and go where God was taking me. And that was and is the absolute hardest part. To let go of my expectations, my wants, my plans...to get to the thing He knew I needed. The life I was meant to have.

All that from a failed mulch delivery. The good news is that mulch will hopefully come this week. And the ground is ready for it. And now the process of getting myself ready for change is starting to happen. I no longer know the plan. I just know that my job is to be ready to follow. To prepare the ground for the mulch.

--Michelle Nolton