Plan B

Currently, I am reading a book titled Plan B, by an author I had never heard of, Pete Wilson. I encourage all of you to read this book, as it's a book we can all relate to (if not right now, eventually in your life you will be able to relate to it). I will confess, that a lot of the ideas in this blog will be based off of this book, however I will try to have my own insights and anecdotes as well.
One of the biggest lies Christians tell themselves, and unfortunately tell others, is "If you have enough faith, do enough good things, serve God enough, and are 'spiritual' enough, God will bless you and answer all of your prayers". Perhaps I am generalizing that too much, but the basic truth is...we have all believed this, or at the very least heard this at one time or another, right? We've seen the preachers urging their parishoners to "have more faith", to "pray harder", and if they do, then prayers will be answered. Unfortunately, that is very untrue. Bad things happen to good people. One of the hardest truths for Christians is, "our plans and God's plans are not always the same thing". We fall into the trap that, God wants what we want. Now, there are times that this is true...that God truly does want the same things that we want...however, there are many, MANY times that what we want isn't even close to what God wants. The bible is littered with stories of people who have a plan, or an idea of what they want...and God turns it completely on its head. How do we respond when our Plan A turns into a Plan B?
I will tell you a story from my second year at Bethany College. I'm sure I have mentioned this story before, but I will tell it again:
My second year at Bethany was literally one of the hardest, and most depressing years of my life. It was a complete Plan B for me. Nothing went according to plan. In fact, it even began the end of my first year. At the end of my first year, I had my heart broken by a girl that I naively thought was "the one", and I had my dreams of being a R.A. crushed (an R.A. is a student who is in charge of a "unit" or group of people in the dorms). I was already fragile entering my second year of Bethany, but I had things to look forward to. I was going to play indoor soccer, be part of drama teams and have a great time. But it was not to be. I auditioned for 3 different drama type groups...one was the Bethany Players. This is the group that travels around to churches and communities and performs skits. In fact, the Players were the very reason I even attended Bethany in the first place. They performed at my church in Boissevain, and I said to myself "I want to do that". The other 2 drama groups were Productions, one in the first semester and one in the second semester. All three of my auditions went well, and I got call backs all the way to the end in all of them...and then didn't make the cut on any of them. I was crushed. I thought for sure that this was the year I would make players, and it didn't happen. As crushed as I was, I still believed that I would at least have indoor soccer to play, which would ease the pain. I tried out, and did horrible. Like, literally really bad. However, I was on the team the year prior, so I assumed that the coach would want players who had played before, so I thought I was a lock for the team...I thought wrong. So, I tried out for 4 different things, 5 if you count wanting to be an R.A., that I wanted really bad, and not one of them happened. I was pissed off. However, things were going to get even harder on me. I was lead to believe, by both the drama instructor and soccer coach, that if anybody quit the team, or if anything happened, that I would be on the teams. Well, both the Players and soccer team had someone quite, or leave for various reasons. And I didn't get a position on either team. In fact, my R.A. got the spot on the Players, and a person who didnt even try out for the soccer team got the spot on the team (I was the only cut from the team). I was beyond angry, frustrated and just felt betrayed. My unit was filled with people who were either on Players, on the soccer team, in a production, and even a few who were part of 2, or even all of these things. I couldn't get away from it. I wish I could say that I responded well, and trusted God that his Plan B was better than my Plan A...but I didn't. I in fact was so mad that I wrote a VERY hurtful blog, directed at the drama teacher, soccer coach, and people who were on the teams. I made the fals assumption that nobody read my blogs anyway, and so I thought I was more venting to myself...of course, people did read it. I hurt a lot of people (If you happen to be one of the people I hurt, I apologize sincerely). That whole year at Bethany, I was just a negative, depressed person. I acted like I had it all together, but deep down I was an angry person. I did not respond well to my Plan B situation.
Ok, so that was a longer story than I anticipated, however I think you get the picture. We all have had similar Plan B situations. The fact is, I lost sight of the fact that God didnt want what I wanted. I reacted in a way that was hurtful, and horrible...and in fact that blog cost me a spot on the Players my third year as well. If I had only accepted God's plan, realized that I had another purpose for being there, I would have not only enjoyed my second year at Bethany a lot more (instead of being bitter everytime I saw someone who made the teams...which at a small school is like every 35 seconds), but I also would have made the Players the next year.
How we react to Plan B situations is key. Look at Job, he lost everything and yet still was able to trust God, and worship God. Yes, he was upset, and confused...yet he knew that God was bigger than his plans. Also, the story of Joseph. His life was a complete Plan B situation. Nearly killed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsley accused and imprisoned, and forgotten. What if Joseph reacted differently? What if, when his brothers showed up to get food from him, he sent them away or sold them into slavery? The entire nation of Israel would have been wiped out. If Joseph was bitter while in prison, he never would have interpreted the dreams nor would he have finally been named second in command of all of egypt.
It's not easy to react well to Plan B situations. But if we lay down our expections at Christ's feet. If we let our plans be secondary to God's plans, then we have a better chance of reacting better, and being a happier, less bitter person. But when we assume that God will reward our plans, when we think that "my plan is the same as God plan"...we will be left battered, bruised and bitter when our plan goes awry. In fact, we may even feel that God has abandoned us, when in all reality he is more real than ever before.
If we open our hearts, and our minds to what God wants, then we may even realize that the Plan B, even though it is different and harder, is actually much better than our original Plan A ever was. Of course...that's a lot easier said than done.