Have you ever thought…
This is not what I expected?

I think we all can answer that question with a resounding- YES!

We make many plans throughout our lives and have countless hopes and dreams, but these well laid plans do not always look like our present reality. Life happens, and our lives will take turns we never imagined, dreamt of or considered.

Recently on social media, Sadie Robertson Huff shared a post about how her well laid plans were hijacked by the fact that she was traveling with her one year old daughter. If you are a parent, you have been in her shoes and remember those days vividly … often breaking into a cold sweat while recalling those travel days of old. She shared this in her post, “I think when we learn to surrender our expectations to God’s plan for our life we position ourselves to be much happier people. Grateful for the things that happen in our life and able to lean into and learn during the unexpected moments.”

Being grateful for the unexpected detours is not often our first reaction. Leaning into these moments and learning from them are often not our first, second or third reactions. But what if they were? I agree with Sadie. We would be much happier people with more grateful hearts.

Scripture is filled with accounts of the unexpected turning into a blessing and learning time for God’s people. Often the result was far better than the people could have fathomed. God has plans for our lives and purposes for our seasons even when they do not match our own well laid plans. One of the first memory verses I learned as a new Believer in my later twenties is from Isaiah 55 and is a verse I use as a constant reminder, no matter what season of life I am currently walking through –

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

He has a plan which we will not fully grasp until we see Him face to face, so in this life we will walk through seasons of unmet expectations and seasons full of challenge. But God does not leave us to face these challenges alone, and He gives us many Scriptural truths like Isaiah 55 to hold onto and remember.

If you find the unmet expectations weighing heavily on you in the upcoming weeks and holiday season, remember God is working. His purpose will prevail. And with much gratitude we can begin to see the unexpected and say, “Thanks be to God.”

Rebecca Hamilton