When the Game Plan Changes - Martin Wiles

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 NLT

The week had been slow, but I’d been in full-time ministry long enough to know things can change in a second. And they did.

Besides my normal schedule, all I had planned for the next day was to pray with our church mission team at 6 am. They were leaving for Myrtle Beach, SC. Then I received a call from a church member. Her husband would be having surgery around 7 am. On the way to church that evening, my wife’s brother called. He was on the list to receive a heart transplant and had just left the doctor’s office. They wanted him at MUSC in Charleston, SC, at 4 pm the next day. He had no one to take him. Without the heart, his days were numbered. 

Suddenly, my game plan had changed—a change not only for us but for my two children. Since my wife keeps our grandchildren, a change in our game plan means one in theirs. They have no dependable backup plan so a last minute call from us can put them in a quandary. But they know I’m on 24-hour call and things can change in a moment.

I like to initiate change—when it’s needed and when the end result will entail a helpful alteration—but I don’t like it thrust upon me. I’m a creature of habit, and this change meant getting up two hours earlier as well as a four-hour drive to the hospital—and to an area I dislike. We’d be lucky to get home by midnight. A long day. And I’d have to work from the car. 

Trusting in the Lord with all my heart and depending on Him rather than my own understanding isn’t easy—or always convenient. 

A part of following Him means making myself available to opportunities He sends—even when they change the game plan. Our mission team needed prayer, and so did the man having surgery. My wife’s brother also needed our help. Three opportunities. Three chances to serve.

When God changes your game plan, trust He has a reason. Then enjoy the chance He’s giving you to serve.

Prayer: Father, though we don’t enjoy changes thrust upon us, help us trust that You have a reason. Then prompt us to serve in love. 

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