Not In My Plans...

July 6th – Get this sudden idea about having a huge neighborhood wide Back To School Bash on a Sunday afternoon all around the outside of the church campus.

-Pitch it to the deacons, am given a thousand dollar budget and offers of help

July – August 31
- Plan games
- Choose and order appropriate and budget friendly prizes
- Make ten separate visits to various stores for school supplies at the lowest possible prices

Sunday - Sep. 7 - Have a massive sign-up list in church and 28 people agree to give up their afternoon and help
- Answer the question “what will we do if it rains?” with a confident “If God could cause the sun to shine for Joshua an additional 24 hours so that he could win the battle, surely He can make it not rain on Sunday afternoon”

Mon – Friday – Make massive lists of details still be to attended to
- Rent popcorn machine, hot dog steamer, inflatable, arrange for tents
- Buy massive quantities of popcorn and hot dogs
- Watch the forecast predicting rain all week
- Answer more questions about what will we do if it rains?
- Have 7 helpers distribute more than 400 flyers all around the neighborhood
- Send emails and make phone calls to those who understand the fervency of intercession that they will pray that it will not rain.

Saturday – 8 pm
Sunday’s forecast – 100% chance of rain – something you never see – 100% and it’s been raining virtually nonstop all day Friday and all day today.

Lord….
This was your idea from the beginning. You have provided the strength, inspiration, and creativity for this entire event. If it rains we’re sunk because no one will come and all the money has been spent.

Lord, it is now I need to remember the things I know:

Moses and the children of Israel at the Red Sea
Joshua looking at the fortified city of Jericho
The servant whose borrowed ax head has flown off and into the river
The widow preparing the last meal for her and her son
Thousands of people listening on a hillside with no food save 5 rolls and 2 fish
The darkness of Calvary as you’ve breathed your last and there’s been no miraculous rescue from heaven

Because these stories are in the Bible, and the end has already been written, it is difficult to remember that they were real people – with genuine anxiety about the impossible in front of them and all their resources exhausted.

There is nothing I can do Father. I have no control over the weather, only you do.

I am counting on you – this whole thing was your idea from the beginning and meant for your glory and to promote your name – how much you would be honored by giving us a beautiful afternoon – of course the doubt in me would ask you to make it beautiful first thing in the morning so that the set-up will not be so soggy…Lord Jesus, be glorified, in my own heart and amongst your church here and to this neighborhood.

And Father, should the clouds continue their weeping throughout tomorrow may I rest in peace that this was also part of your plan to accomplish whatever purpose this was all meant to accomplish…

Sunday –

Midnight to 6 am – waking up periodically, praying that it does not rain…

6:30 am – faint pink in the sky, everything is wet but IT IS NOT RAINING!!!!

7:30 am - steadily raining heavily – radar map for the day is solid green

Tropical depression caused by Hurricane Ike – band of rain from the most intense center in Texas all the way to Canada – mostly yellow in the center path flanked by green…it doesn’t look good…

Father, hold an umbrella over 11024 Bell and please put it in place by the time we get there when the decision needs to be made…

9:30 am – POURING

10 am – Moved the signs to indicate the outdoor carnival is now indoors – get totally soaked, cancel the inflatable

11am – Sunday service begins, still pouring, my heart feels like the weather outside.

12:30 – Everything starts inside –it's loud and confused but many have stayed to help and families have come and there are many smiles and a lot of fun and... it continues to rain -

3 pm – Event ends – and so finally does the rain…

Father, I am disappointed in the weather. I was faithful in my preparation, in my ascribing glory to you, in fervent prayer and yet it still rained. This wasn’t part of my plans – my massively detailed, page after page of plans for this day...

But it was in your plan all along.
I wish I knew why.

I wish I knew what purpose you had in mind to accomplish..
But I don’t.
All I know is that my plans did not include rain, but yours did.

So Lord -and as I say that I am ascribing to you that you are Lord, my master, my God, and the potentate of all - may I rest in the assurance that you are God and I am not and that you know what you are doing, even though I don’t.

And may we all find our peace here when things don’t work out the way we planned.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Isaiah 55:8,9 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."