Embracing God's Redirection

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I had plans growing up. Through my preteen years, I dreamed of being a famous singer or actress (hello, Broadway). Fun fact: my singing voice stinks. As a teenager, I set my sights on dunking a basketball and becoming a lawyer. When I entered college, my focus shifted toward a future in politics.

To date, I have accomplished none of these things. God redirected my passion for basketball to volleyball, which led me to a Christian college, which, in turn, led to meeting my future husband and discovering a passion for teaching. The love I have for speaking and performing serves me every day in the classroom. Who needs Broadway when you have a stage and an audience five days a week?

Looking back at my childhood plans and dreams, I don’t see failure. Instead, I see the beautiful way God redirected me at each step, using my gifts and passions to lead me on a much more fulfilling path in His service.

Other redirections have been more difficult. When my husband and I faced the heartbreak of infertility, I questioned God. For years, as we awaited the family we felt God had promised us, I asked Him that big, hard, impossible question: Why? Why did you choose this path for me? I’d like to tell you the answer came shortly after that, but it didn’t.

For almost seven years, we waited, hoped, and prayed. Finally, I accepted what I felt was the truth: I must have misunderstood God. His answer wasn’t “not yet.” It was just “no.” He wasn’t going to give me the child I’d been praying for. Heartbroken, I exchanged questions for anger and indignation. I have served you. I have been faithful. I trusted you. What about Sarah? What about Hannah? Elizabeth? Rachel? These biblical women prayed to you for a child, and you gave them one. Why not me?

In time, I finally decided I needed to let it go, to pray for God’s will. That prayer was impossible, though. My heart wanted what it wanted, and saying otherwise didn’t change that. So, I prayed and asked God to change my heart and to help me accept His will. I told Him I wanted to trust Him, that I wanted to believe His plan was best. I just couldn’t get there on my own. Please help me accept your plan for my life, I finally prayed.

The good news is he did just that. He changed my heart. Children or no children, I could be content. It was only then that God brought us our son, Micah.

We’ve all heard the stories of women trying to get pregnant, and just when they stop trying, Poof! Magic! Baby!

That wasn’t what happened (and by the way, please don’t tell a woman struggling through infertility that if she would just stop trying so hard, she would get pregnant. It’s terrible advice, hurtful, and suggests she is somehow to blame for her circumstances). Once I finally got away from my plan, I was open to God’s plan. In this case, that was adoption. It was something I never in a million years would have pursued. It’s even less likely that my husband would have. However, through this experience, excruciatingly painful and difficult as it was, God worked two miracles.

He gave us Micah, our son, who has filled my heart every bit as much as a biological child ever could.

Bigger yet, God worked a miracle in my heart. He taught me to trust him. He forever changed me, giving me living, tangible proof every day that His ways are best and He is always, in every way, faithful.

If you’ve ever struggled with accepting God’s plan over your own, you are not alone. This is a lesson God’s people always seem to struggle to learn. In the book of Isaiah, God’s people had rebelled against him, yet again. Isaiah, in an attempt to draw them back to God, shares God’s message:

“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)

God’s ways are always better than our ways. He knows more and loves better than we do. We aren’t talking just a little more or better, either. His ways are like the sky, with never-ending views. He covers us and protects us completely. Our ways are like the earth, where we cannot even see past the trees and hills that surround us.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word used for “thoughts” in this passage can also be translated as “plan” or even, as is the case in the story of Esther, as “devise” or “scheme.” In the book of Esther, Haman, the king’s advisor, who tried to have Mordecai and all the Jews killed, “devised and wrote to destroy the Jews” (Esther 8:5), but whose “evil scheme” was brought “back onto his own head” (Esther 9:25). Haman’s thoughts and plans were directly against God, and he set himself up as an enemy to God’s people and his plan for them. God turned Haman’s plans against Haman, and the result was Haman’s death.

Through Esther, God brought salvation for his people, yet again. I’m sure Esther had plans for her own life before she was used by God in this way, and they probably didn’t include being orphaned, exiled, or placed in a competition to become queen of a foreign land. I’m sure she hadn’t planned on becoming queen just to risk her life as she intentionally disregarded the law of the land. In fact, her first response to Mordecai’s asking her to help her people was something akin to “are you crazy?” She reminded him of the law requiring death to anyone who approached the king without being summoned (4:11).

However, when Mordecai emphasizes what is at stake, the death of all Jews, and suggests maybe, just maybe, the whole reason she became queen was because God wanted her in the unique position of being able to save her people. Accepting God’s will in her life, no matter the consequences, Esther agrees to go before the king, unsummoned, even if it means her death (4:16). Through her willingness to follow God’s ways above her own, Esther and her people are saved. God’s plan is fulfilled.

Like Esther, we, too, have to choose between our way and God’s way. Think of all the conscious decisions you make each day: the words you speak, the posts you make on social media, the good you choose to do or not to do for others, your reaction when you are interrupted, etc. Think of the long-term plans you have for yourself -- the big ones and the small ones. Your dreams. How many of our choices, plans, and schemes are we allowing God to control? How many are we selfishly holding onto for ourselves and our own desires and gains?

I can say God has never once lied to or misled me. He has redirected me, though, time and time again. His ways have always been better than my ways. His plans have far exceeded mine in every single instance. Every turn and redirection He has orchestrated has been good for me and for those traveling along with me because He is good and can do nothing contrary to His nature.

Following His path is always the best for us because each time we set off down the path he has for us, we will find ourselves walking toward God, drawing closer to Him with every step.

What plan could be better than that?