When Plans Fail and Dreams Die
I stayed up late into the night talking to my brother on the phone last night. Last night we talked about when plans fail and dreams die.I'm realizing that some days life feels like a lament Psalm, and that it's healthy to give such days a voice:
Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!Why do you hide your face?Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?For our soul is bowed down to the dust;our belly clings to the ground.Rise up; come to our help!(Psalm 44)
Some days the reality of busted plans and broken dreams hits you harder. Yesterday was one of those days for both of the Buzzard brothers.The temptation on days like this is to think, as the Psalmist says above, that God is sleeping. Is he?No.My brother and I are learning that when plans fail and dreams die, God has us right where he wants us.It's when plans fail and dreams die that we come to the end of our strength, wisdom, and resources. It's in these times that we face situations totally beyond ourselves. We can't fix it! We don't know what to do! And where do we find ourselves? Flat on our face, "bowed down to the dust," crying to God for help.Now we've got a real God.Only when you face failed plans and dead dreams are you forced to decide whether you really believe that Jesus is BIGGER than the big pain and big obstacles in front of you.I keep thinking about Jacob. Jacob had a relationship with God. He learned about God from his parents, Isaac and Rebekah. Scriptures records some prayers Jacob prayed to God. But everything changed in Jacob's life when he faced a situation that was totally beyond him.Jacob had been away in the far country for a long time. Twenty years had past and now he was coming home. On the return trip Jacob learned that his brother (who had tried to murder him twenty years earlier) was marching towards him with a company of men 400 strong. Jacob was out of his depth. This was a new place for Jacob. What did he do?Jacob got alone. Late at night, alone at the river Jabbok, Jacob had a life-changing encounter with the living God. It wasn't the encounter you'd expect or wish for. God pounced on Jacob, wrestled Jacob. For the first time in his life, Jacob felt God's weight. Pinned down under the weight of the living God, Jacob's life was changed. There's so much more I could write about this story, but at heart of this story is Jacob's realization that he and God were in an entirely different weight class, that God was in a weight class all by himself. Jacob emerged from the encounter awake to where his strength and security was to be found--in his God, not in himself.Jacob was not a perfect man. But from that night forward his life took on a new trajectory. He would never be the same. He was given a limp to always remind him of his strong and sovereign God.It took failed plans, broken dreams, and circumstances totally beyond his resources to get him there.So, cheer up. Our God is not asleep. He is wide awake, a wide-awake Father with his eyes fixed on his sons and daughters. And he is wise. Sometimes he must allow our plans to blowup and our dreams to crash and burn in order to give us new and better plans, bigger and better dreams. Our setbacks may be God's springboards, springboards for a new life that God knows is best for us.