Oh my goodness....I'm exhausted watching the Women's World Cup Final: USA vs. Japan! USA was expected to win after coming back twice earlier in the tournament against Brazil and France. So, I was stunned as I watched our team miss opportunity after opportunity to score and put us in the lead...and eventually lose the fight. I had played the whole game from my recliner...and in my mind's game, we scored those goals in the first half and USA won without resorting to PKS! That was how it was supposed to be! In a perfect world, it happens....(unless you're Japanese in which case you want what really happened to happen!!) Congratulations Japan...you came back twice and did what it took to have victory in the end....and you've given your demoralized and devastated country the hope and resilience it needs to stand up again and rebuild. You earned it...you deserve it...and you needed it more.
Watching that game made me think about how often our expectations are unmet and how we adapt them to match our reality. I thought about what Emily recently said about the World Race, ...."you never know what to expect", how seemingly unplanned each day is....and then watch what unfolds as God reveals His goals for that day...His plans to use them to build His kingdom through trust, availability, sacrifice, servant-heartedness, compassion, love, submission, selflessness, and dependence...and at the end of the day, He is glorified! This is one of the World Race trademarks..."they check with God first for the plan"....they pray, wait on the Lord, "expect" Him to lead, then plan accordingly or follow accordingly, being (reasonably) patient during delays when the truck breaks down or gets stuck in the mud...and flexible when schedules change (which they inevitably do)... and then marvel at how God somehow salvages the day and accomplishes His will through those "interruptions and problems". Wow, what great lessons in life the World Race is teaching the team....and me.
I'm learning a lot by watching them, reading their blogs, and processing what it all means to me. I'm learning (or relearning) that the best days are the ones where I don't have it all planned out, because on those days, there is usually a divine appointment waiting for me that I would have missed out on had I planned each moment for me. In earlier days, I used to think those appointments were interruptions and I often missed their significance. I'm reminded that all time belongs to God, and so it's best to check in with Him each morning first before I waste too much of the day pursuing my own goals....just to see if He has other ideas of what is more important to spend my time doing. I don't like to waste time. I'm not a patient person. I tend to plan in order to prevent wasting time or opportunity. So, on the days when I check in with God (because there are too many when I don't bother)....these are the surprise days, the blessing days, the Aha! days. And I realize that God wants me to have many many more of these days. He wants me to be like a child who starts each day with eager anticipation of what's to come...letting the day unravel naturally and trusting Him to plan it for me...like I used to plan out my kids' days, full of fun and learning. Culturally, I've been conditioned to plan each day so that I accomplish or achieve or acquire, because either my job required it or my family needed it...but somehow in the process, I often missed seeing the faces, hearing the voices, smelling the flowers, touching the softness, tasting the flavors. At the end of the day, I'm exhausted but not fulfilled. I had put off the experience that God wanted me to have to get my list checked off.
I've thought about what it would be like to redo some days by undoing my own plans and replacing them with what God would have done with that day just to see what I missed. But I don't think God wants me to be burdened with guilt and regret. He wants me to take what I've learned from yesterday and focus on today and tomorrow, so instead of regretting the redo days, I've chosen to revisit the days that I wouldn't change even if I could, the ones that I got right! Now that I've learned the secret, there's a promise in my future and the blessings far outnumber the regrets!
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