God’s Plans 

   “For I know full well the plans I have made for you, plans for your welfare and not for your misfortune, plans that will offer you a future filled with hope.” (Jer 29: 11) 

   In my life I have seen what I thought were definite plans for how my life would progress revised, changed, and improved.  It seems many times I’ve had little to do with the change, external factors prompted them.  It took me quite some time to understand that what I was calling “external factors” were, instead, the plans God had for me.

   I’ve not always readily agreed or accepted the changes God made in my life.  But I’ve come to realize that even the plans I disliked were for the betterment of my relationship with Him and allowed me to grow in my love, trust, and faith in God.

   When my first wife went home to the Lord I was at a loss as to why God had left me without the woman I had loved for almost 50 years.  It seemed a cruel thing to do.  Yet, even from this tragedy came a growth in my spiritual life that I never expected.  God can write straight with crooked lines at times.

   I became convinced that my life was to be one of dedication to God without the joy of marital love.  I became a Benedictine Oblate and grew in my faith and trust in the Lord.  I was, or thought I was, content with that life, but God wasn’t through with me. 

   Totally by surprise I met and married a woman who has made my life a joy again.  The happiness and love we share is beyond what words can describe.  My love for my first wife is no less strong and alive than before but this new love is just as strong and alive.  I can’t explain how that can be, I can only attribute it to the love and grace of God and give Him all thanks and glory.

   Many people say that life is what we make of it.  I believe that if we insist on making it ourselves, we will only be fooling ourselves.  Life is what God has planned for us, even when we don’t know or understand why or how.  It’s far better to accept it and say, “Yes Lord, let your will, not mine, be done.