Flexibility: Living on God’s Timetable

By Myles Morrison

I don’t know about you, but I like everything to be worked out ahead of time. Make things simpler and easier with planners, schedules, and alarms. Know where everything is and how everything is done; being able to have control. With these things, you can write out the rest of your life. Doesn’t that sound great?

I used to be at a point where I thought I had my life planned out. That was until I allowed this control to become pride. This led to suddenly losing everything, focusing on the negatives, feeling like a failure, and being angry and frustrated at the God who would do nothing to harm me. That’s the thing about this life on earth, we are so focused on things and planning out our future that we don’t realize God already has everything planned out. I was focused on my schedule instead of the schedule God has planned out for me. 

“I was focused on my schedule instead of the schedule God has planned out for me.”

Is there anything wrong with planners, schedules, and alarms? Of course there isn’t. But am I willing to put aside anything I have going on for whatever task God puts in front of me? For instance, my friends and I planned a Walmart trip because we were going to be very busy that week. We found all of our items and we went to checkout our stuff. When we got there, we found out that the server was down and that they could only take cash at the moment. I was the only one with a little cash, so I had my friends return all of our items except for two birthday presents for the next day. As my friends were gone, I was frustrated by the fact that I needed and wanted to buy all those items and not have to wait in line longer, just to buy two presents. It came to me that I was being selfish; I was allowing something I wanted to come in the way of realizing “I can wait.” Am I putting myself first or am I allowing an opportunity for patience to come through? 

Other people in line with me are frustrated but what am I to do about it? I do what I do best and that is smile. I need to find joy in little situations like this and realize they can be worked through. I was given an opportunity to exemplify positivity to strangers in a time of frustration. I don’t know how the rest of their day went, but I do know smiling says a lot to people and a genuine smile is something that is safe. 

My friends returned and I was able to go and make my purchase. I was ready to pay with cash but the cashier wanted to see if we could try my card, to see if it would work. And guess what happened? I was able to use it. It’s funny to look back at that and realize I could have gotten more frustrated but, instead, I smiled and laughed. God used the situation of my waiting in line and checking out to help me realize we need to smile and enjoy the moment and just be patient. I didn’t need all those items in my cart, all I needed was to just be joyful with what I have and who I am around. I was not expecting to go through that during my time in Walmart. 

“We may have our own schedules, but we are ultimately under God’s timing. He can come in at any moment and change our plan for His perfect plan.”

As a follower of Jesus, I have to be flexible. I have to be willing to adjust to change. Putting whatever I want to accomplish last and fulfilling whatever needs to be done. It doesn’t mean I have to like it but, ultimately, I need to glorify God in whatever He has planned and in store for me. So, when you think you have everything planned out, just realize: We may have our own schedules, but we are ultimately under God’s timing. He can come in at any moment and change our plan for His perfect plan. We are to work to the fullest as disciples of Him. This demonstrates that a follower must be flexible. 

Myles is a part of the CBM Internship program, which exists to encourage young people to experience missions! To learn more about the CBM Internship program click www.childrensbibleministries.net/internships.

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