Gift Number Twenty One — JC's Village

It’s not shameful for life’s circumstances to alter your plans.

I mean - I LOVE making plans - plans for get-togethers, outings, adventures, classes, projects - all of that. But so many of us are so hard on ourselves when the myriad details we want to plan out to the Nth degree derail. So many of us rush around in our lives with zero margins for error, a houseful of unpredictable babies - furry and otherwise. So many of us base so much of our happiness and our lives on so much go perfectly.

Here’s the only thing you can plan on perfectly … That thing you planned - it will not go like that. And, that does not make you less of a glorious Creation of God’s deserving of love, respect, and for the love of all that’s good - some occasional peace and quiet. Yes. Please!

Other than Jesus, death, and taxes, the only other certainty is plans going awry.

Yoda didn’t plan on that spaceship landing in his swamp.

Frodo didn’t plan on carrying the ring past Rivendell.

Lucy didn’t plan on finding anything past the back of the wardrobe.

Katniss didn’t plan to volunteer.

Luke planned on going to get power converters with his friends.

Sometimes - things that mess our plans up are the beginning of something really, really big. Sometimes even awesome. Sometimes our plans weren’t as great as we thought.

We’ve all had so much go so differently from what we’d planned, from what we’d hoped.

What I know about this Christmas is that it will not be what we thought it would be a month ago. But it’s not the stuff, the food, the decorations that make Christmas special - it’s the people we love - wherever they are. Maybe if we let go of what isn’t important, we’ll have clarity about what is important - about the big adventure of valuing what is valuable. If we let ourselves do that often enough - we can grow wise. If keep that up - we can find ourselves on a wonderful journey of throwing off unimportant stuff that weighs us down and complicates everything and embarking on what could be the most rewarding journey of our lives - the journey of becoming someone who helps others love the life God’s given them.