Getting Too Comfortable

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
(adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns)

There is something comforting to me about having a plan. I don't always enjoy the extra work planning can sometimes bring, but it's totally worth it to me in the end. Planning helps me feel more in control and not necessarily in a bad way. Thinking things through and being prepared are good things. However, you cannot have a plan without having expectations. And we all know that best laid plans can always change or even go wrong.

The best way to describe last week was an adventure. We were scheduled for a weeks vacation at the beach when Hurricane Irene hit the east coast and disrupted our weekend plans. Disappointed and a little frustrated with not knowing whether the hurricane would cause enough damage to cancel our plans we did our best to keep our options open. Thankfully, it left a lot of rain and some tree branches behind and little else. We finally did get to the beach, a couple days late, but happy to be there.

If that was the only lesson we were meant to learn last week that would have been enough. On our second day on the beach a strong wave hit me (and probably a flying elbow) sending me to the ER for swelling and seven stitches on the bridge of my nose. I cannot describe the trauma this "minor" accident caused our family. We had been out swimming together and blood rushing down my face was not a sight my children knew quite how to handle. Initially struggling with the "why did that have to happen" I quickly changed my perspective to "thank you it wasn't something much worse". I didn't hit the bottom and I didn't lose consciousness. And as every Mom can identify with, I was super thankful it was me and not one of my kids. And so our best laid plans were disrupted again by my injury and we were left to process the trauma the rest of the week.

Apparently bad things do come in threes because at the end of our trip, when friends came to visit for the weekend, their little boy got lost on the beach and we frantically searched for a 3 year old whose legs carried him seven blocks from where we had been sitting. Praise God he was found relatively quickly and unharmed. But you have to know those minutes of not knowing were hideous.

So I have come away from that week knowing none of those things would have happened if we had just stayed at home, but believing everything happens for a reason, having no regrets about going. In our case, my nose will heal and that little guy is back where he belongs, but I cannot take one moment or person for granted. And I cannot get too comfortable, trusting in myself and my plans because they can change in an instant. I have faith that God is in control, even when my plans change, especially when my plans change.

The day after my nose accident, this song came over the iPod. It is a good reminder that although I do not know what is going to happen and I may not understand what does, I place my faith in the One who does know and "I know He watches me".

"HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW"
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.