By Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz, Trinity Lutheran Church, Bruning
This morning, Rick and I got up early and drove to Hastings for a doctor's appointment that had already been rescheduled once. We arrived on time, filled out the paperwork, and were then informed after waiting for 15 minutes that the doctor had to leave to deliver a baby. We were not upset, because babies come when they come, but it was frustrating because I had other commitments and couldn't wait for the doctor to return at 3:00 that afternoon. So the appointment is put off again.
January is a time when many of us like to make plans, set goals, perhaps come up with some New Year's resolutions. Weight loss commercials are everywhere, stores are full of specials on storage and organization items, and the blank pages of our calendars seem full of possibilities.
I even recently had a fortune cookie tell me, “Be the architect of your destiny, shaping it with the opportunities you seize."
For a planner like myself, it can be very tempting to schedule and organize everything and then be disappointed or upset when things don't go according to plan. It’s true that planning and organization can help us lead productive, well ordered, satisfying lives, but we can't let those things become so important that we are completely undone when our plans don't work out. After all, we are not really the architect of our destiny. We have a Heavenly Father who fills that role much better than we ever could.
A pastor friend of mine recently wrote that rather than making resolutions that WE intend to keep, maybe we should look into what God has in mind for us and try to do that. Sounds like the best resolution we could have!
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” --Proverbs 16:9
