Change of Plans

I am a planner. A compulsive list maker (understatement of the century).

But nothing went as planned last week.

And reflecting on it now, I see how great that was.

One area that I have grown in over the last few years is holding onto my own plans more loosely. I have learned that doing so will help me to feed my own soul and also make time for others. I really want my life to be marked more and more by how I help and serve others, rather than how much of my to-do list got done.

So this week was a good test of how far I have come in holding tightly to my plans. Last Sunday I had envisioned a week with some free time to focus on being more in shape and starting a training plan for my half-marathon. I thought of a few friends who I would like to catch up with now that the Holidays have passed. But then work happened and none of that took place. I was feeling frantic and frazzled. I knew that I needed to feed my own soul, so I skipped my financial class on Wednesday evening. It was so wonderful to have an hour to take a breath and read a devotional (even though the rest of the evening went downhill). The old Hannah would have still gone to the class out of (irrational) guilt and obligation, and come away from it even more stressed and snippy. I'm thankful for the grace I felt to make that adjustment.

As the week went on, I was moving every single errand and to-do item to the weekend. I was thankful that I had a weekend coming up with no plans at all so that I could be very productive and accomplish everything I had wanted to do during the week that work had now made impossible to accomplish. But then a friend who is going through a break-up called on Saturday and was wondering if I wanted to go to a church service and grab a bite to eat with her. Even though I haven't been through a break-up, I want to be there for her, and I imagine Saturday nights could be a difficult time in the early stages of a break-up. So instead of getting my list finished while watching a movie with the dogs, I met up with her and I was convicted at church and encouraged by our conversation. I hope in some way I was also helpful to her during our time, because it was certainly helpful to me.

So now I have had time to reflect on my week and look forward to the coming week. I have a lot planned for this week - but who knows how it will actually go. I'm hoping to be even more flexible this week if unforeseen things pop up. I have certainly come a long way in "going with the flow", but I also know that I could have had a better attitude at times last week. Turns out I'm pretty selfish with my time and every once in awhile (or all the time) I need a change of plans to remind me of that.