To do list

 I am often amused by the comings and goings of the day, because there are always designs embedded, not to interrupt or distract,  but to change my course.  It is not that we lay our plans before the LORD that He might be able to squeeze into our predetermined schedules and schemes and control.  But that we ask God to lay out His plans before us for this day.  

In looking to God for His plans and purposes and intentions, there are no interruptions, just divine appointments we had not foreseen.  We have no idea how we will be affected, nor how others are impacted.  God always works in multiple outcomes of which we are rarely aware.

The most interesting things about our day -- or even about our lives-- are not necessarily or even rarely what we set out or planned to do.  

We need His surprises to show us what else might be possible.

My mom was a professional violinist.  In a box of my mom's chaotic stack of papers that I went through when she passed away, I found an index card on which she had written:  "I always wanted to be famous.  But a lot better things happened because I am not." 

We have ideas and pursuits and grand schemes, but there is always something a lot deeper that infiltrates, something more profound is on the move -- and that would be the fingerprints of God.  I miss out on the wonders, if I am trying to control the outcome.

Pray.  Seek God.  Work hard.  Do your best. Stay at your post.  Listen and watch and respond to what God brings into this day.  Hold outcomes loosely.  Something far richer and unexpected is waiting in the foyer.  

Last year, we never saw the pandemic coming nor how it would alter our lives.  But our plans for 2020 were not derailed, just aligned with His.  God was with each one of us through it.  God is still with us.  And He is redeeming in ways we cannot yet see.  Every day is a story of God's faithfulness.

To do list?  In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers notes what he experienced over and over in his life:  "Obey God in the thing He shows you and instantly the next thing is opened up."

Walking with the LORD leads us to a different place, even right where we are.  We go into this day with refreshed strength.  We see all things with a different heart.  And we join God in what He is already doing. 

O LORD, 

    You beckon us, 

"Over here, follow Me."