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“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

When my schedule is tight and there’s not much margin, I move into super planner mode.  A busy weekend sent me into stretching every minute.  Strategically, I leveraged my time to reap the greatest productivity.  By Friday morning, the perfect plan was in place.

Early rise on a Saturday, I edged into my jam packed day.  Love the new grocery pickup options.  Put my order in Friday with pickup 8:00 am on Saturday.  Plenty of time for my husband to pick them up while I finished getting ready for a conference.   Breakfast would be waiting when he returned, I would put up groceries and head out by 9:00 am.  Kink #1 arises – no text message on my phone for pickup.  Easy solution just give them a call.  Thirty minutes of hold and research time revealed my order didn’t go through.   Order replaced for pickup when my meeting ended, got dressed and rushed out the door.

Kink #2 didn’t show up until I left my meeting at 2:00 pm and there was still no pickup text.  Drove to the store and found my order wasn’t ready.  Did I happen to mention, I was leaving to go out of town at 3:00 pm?  Panic set in as my plan unraveled right before my eyes. An update on the store’s website created some unforeseen delays.  Thirty minutes later, I’m driving home with groceries in the trunk – mission accomplished.

No matter how much we plan there are things that simply happen.  When life merges into our hectic schedule, we have two options.  First, we could rant and rave claiming our “right” and demand others fix our “wrong.”   Second option requires a lot more constraint, yet births greater glory.  It sees the people involved as imperfect human beings just like us and works to resolve the issue.  My gut reaction was option #1, but I had just finished listening to someone talk about being “Jesus” imitators in our world. To reach out to others despite our agendas and desire for margin.  This was an opportunity to seize the moment to share God’s love to a sweet girl apologizing for my delay.

Pulling out of that parking lot, I left with more than I arrived with.  The chip on my shoulder dissolved in the stark reality that productivity almost propelled me to shortchange my testimony.  Note to self:  Don’t cloud influence with your frustrations.

“Father, thankful for Your mercies when I miss the mark and demand “perfect” at the expense of others.  Grateful for Your Holiness that teaches me the value of influence.”

For His Glory

Janet Martin
TRBC Women’s Life