My Unplanned, Planned Summer

“I don’t need to know where I’m goin’ just need to know where I’ve been. " Mater, Cars

                My summer is just about over, one week left and the crazy, busy life I call school/work begins. I’m a little sad, but will be so glad to get back to the routine, funny how the very thing that stresses me out during the school year, calms me during the summer. I would like to share with you one of the lessons I have learned, well, truth be told, still learning this summer.

                I have had one of the weirdest summers I’ve ever had. I had my idea of how my summer was going to play out. I started planning it several weeks before I was actually out of school. (For those who don’t know I’m a teacher) My first day of summer was planned and ready for me to enjoy long before the exciting moment of being told, “You can go, enjoy your summer.” My first day of summer didn’t go as planned, and this was a sign of how the rest of my summer would go. My nice, strategically planned summer was about to become my nice, strategically unplanned, planned summer. Please hang with me while I share the high lights of my nicely planned month of June and how things turned out.

                The second full week of June was my first full week of summer. It was loaded with VBS, getting my hair trimmed and highlighted for our upcoming cruise, visit with a friend, and speaking to a group of girls. The third week of June was not as full so we could recover from VBS and rest before our week long cruise. I had plans to visit with friends, shop for the cruise (ya know, clothesJ), pack for the cruise and of course clean my house. The last week of June was our cruise. Sounds good, right? Nice, and planned out for the control freak that I am. Well, my nicely planned month turned into a game of 52 card pick up. I had to reschedule my hair appointment several times, for various reasons. Every time I would plan something, I would have to reschedule. I finally decided to stop planning. This is not an easy task for me. I was comforted by the fact that we did have VBS, which was a great time. I did get to visit a friend as in one, not friends, as in more than the one. We got to go on our cruise, which was a lot of fun. This rescheduling and adjusting my nicely planned month threw me off track. I was stumbling in the dark. I was so thrown off by this I couldn’t wait to board the boat and get away for a week, although I was very nervous this being my first cruise.

                We returned from our wonderful cruise and I realized it was now July. I had even bigger plans for July but so far those plans haven’t happened, and will not happen. I have spent the month of July recovering from the cruise, apparently my body liked the rocking motion of the boat. I’m just now not rocking or spinning every day. (Don’t worry, I’ve been to the dr.) This has meant that once again my nicely planned month turned into my nicely unplanned, planned month. In June I realized God was trying to teach me something but I couldn’t figure out exactly what or why. A month later I had my light bulb moment. This moment came during family movie night. The kids told me to pick the movie so as I went through our collection of movies I was focused on picking one we haven't seen in a while and I picked Cars. With lights off, and popcorn popped we started the movie. I have seen this movie at least a hundred times and wasn’t expecting to have God speak to me. As the scene played out where Mater and Lighting McQueen were speeding back to town after tractor tippin’ Mater starts driving in reverse. Lightin’ is concerned about Mater wrecking and states his feelings, but Mater’s response seemed to be louder than the rest of the movie so I wrote it down. Mater said, “I don’t need to know where I’m goin’ just need to know where I’ve been.” (Could be paraphrased) Wow, I understood what God was telling me and had been trying to get through my stubborn, now swaying head.

                “I don’t need to know where I’m goin’”, equates to I don’t need to plan out every second of my day because I need to listen to God’s directions. “Just need to know where I’ve been”, equates to me realizing where I use to be and where I am now. I’ve been driving and not allowing God to drive. Did you know race cars don’t have headlights? The driver can only see in the dark because the track is lit up. We, Christians, are in a dark world, and sadly, it’s only getting darker. The only way we can see the path that God has planned for us is to follow The Light. It’s nice to have structure, we need it, at least I do. The problem isn’t having structure, but planning so much that we don’t allow our lives to be influenced by God’s direction for the day. I don’t like that my path isn’t lit up the whole way but honestly would I keep going and trusting if I could see the valley or mountain that was in my path? (I highly doubt it!)

            This summer has not been an easy one for me. I have learned to enjoy the day and each moment in it, but I’m still struggling with this. I’m not struggling to enjoy the day or the moments, but to take each day as they come. Apparently I’m still in the fast lane of life. I need to move over to the right lane so I can slow down and stop on the shoulder every now and then to enjoy the scenery. Will you slow down too? My challenge to you is: don’t get so caught up in your routine and plans that you don’t see the path Jesus is lighting up for you. Until next time “May Yahweh bless you and protect you.” (Numbers 6:24, HCSB)