Life's Plans

Life’s Plans

“If you want to make God laugh, tell God about your plans.” Woody Allen

lubo minar  unsplash

lubo minar unsplash

Recently I overheard a conversation with two friends talking about whether one of them could attend a special event at the church. The one who had not gone mentioned that she was looking forward to when she had her life in order and all her ducks in a row so that she could attend such special programs. I smiled and knew exactly where she was. I had been in that situation and at times am still there.

Unfortunately, my experience is that we may never start to get our life ordered and decide what is important and what is not important until some life changing event occurs. Sometimes it is a child acting out or having failing grades. More often it is an illness, sometimes serious, but often not as serious, giving us an early wakeup call. We often re-evaluate what is important after the death of a friend or a friend’s friend or a family member. Sometimes our dreams become repetitive and stranger until we finally decide to remember and work them or talk with someone about them. Losing our job or changing our work is always life changing.

So, how do we discern what is God calling us to do, what is important in our life? Having a rule of life is helpful that can bring some order to our lives and keeping us connected to God. Relying on spiritual disciplines such as all the forms of prayer keep us in relationship to God. Practicing a review of our day each night can eventually give us knowledge of how our day has been spent and what was important. Practicing gratitude for the many small and big parts of our day can give us amazing insight into where we find joy and peace.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com