Lining Up Those Ducks

            Most of us like to make goals, set schedules, and have our ducks in a row. We make our plans and then ask God bless them. It makes us feel secure and in control.

            One of our sons (who was born an Engineer) loves to have his life planned out to the smallest detail. He has had all his ducks lined up since he was about 12 years old. Much to his free-spirited sister’s dismay, he organized our family Disneyland trip on a spreadsheet. A month before the trip he emailed everyone in the family asking us to rank our top five rides or attractions. He assigned each one a point, then calculated and yada yada yada . .  . came up with a spreadsheet of everyone’s favorite rides in order with a numerical value. He then studied the Disney app to see how long the  lines were and what the wait time was at different times of the day for each of the favorite rides. He planned out the three days so it would be the most efficient, hit the most amount of favorite rides, and spend the least amount of time waiting in lines. I wish I had a picture of his sister’s face when he handed out the spreadsheets with the agenda!

            As much as we would like to organize and plan out our life on a spreadsheet, we know this is not possible. Kids. Work. Accidents. Messes. Emergencies. We can’t account for all of life’s interruptions on a spreadsheet. Yet, we still like to have our life planned.

            One of the difficult parts of the Christian life is handing over that control to the Lord. When we choose to follow Him, we give our spreadsheets over to Him. His plans and His timing may not be the same as ours.

            One of my friends, who is a planner, prayed and decided she should home school her young children. She planned it in advance so her daughter would go to a Christian school for First grade while her son was in pre-school. Then, she would home school them for Kindergarten and Second grade. That would give her a year to research curriculum, plan and prepare for the new undertaking. I don’t think she had a spreadsheet, but she was definitely lining her ducks up. It gave her confidence, security and peace to know she had a year to get everything in order.

            She was in a women’s Bible study group. It did not have anything to do with home schooling, but she spent a lot of time reading and studying God’s Word. During one of her times in the Word, she clearly heard, in her spirit, “Do it now.” She knew immediately it was the Lord speaking to her and she knew He wanted her to home school now and not wait a year.

            What did she do?

            She told the Lord her plans. She said, “Not this year. I have it all planned. We will start NEXT year.” Later, when she told her sister this story, her sister asked,

            “So you back-talked God?”

            Knowing she wanted to follow the Lord, and if He knew it was best to “do it now,” she decided to obey.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”, declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

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            How about you?  
  
 Do you have your ducks lined up and planned out on your life spreadsheet?       Is there room for the 
Holy Spirit to shake things up, move things and change your agenda?






*** This is Day 8 of the 31 Days of Hearing God series. It is part of the write31days.com challenge. To read the rest of the topics in this series click here. ***