"Planes, Trains and Automobiles"

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And do not lean on your own understanding

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will direct your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

Linda left Milwaukee at about 9am on Monday morning.  A little over 41 hours later she is finally home in Frankfurt.  What took so long?  The plan was for her to drive to Chicago, fly from there to Philadelphia and then on to Frankfurt, arriving here 15 hours later.  What happened instead reminds me a little of the old Steve Martin movie – “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”  She got to Chicago, got on her plane to Philadelphia and then sat on the runway for an hour and a half.  They finally pulled back into the gate and let half of the passengers, including Linda, get off because they were going to miss their connections.  It took the airlines another hour and half to figure out a new way to get Linda home.  Then she sat in the Chicago airport for 22 hours before taking off for Charlotte North Carolina.  Last night she took a flight to Frankfurt.  When she got home this morning she had to put in a claim for lost luggage.  While she was doing that they shut down the exit from customs because of an abandoned bag.  They brought in the bomb squad and checked it out.  It was just a bag but it seemed the appropriate ending to Linda’s journey home. 

She did get home – just not the way we planned it.  That got me to thinking about our plans.  We make our plans in life as if we have some insight to the future… as if we are in control.  For me, that is very often when God steps in and reminds me of how very little control I have.  When my mom and dad moved to Texarkana back in 1994, my plan was for many years enjoying having both of them close by.  God had a different plan.  9 months later my dad died.  Two years ago, Linda and I had no plans to live overseas.  Then my name appeared on call lists in Hong Kong and South Korea.  That scared us to death.  We wondered, “What is God doing? Does He really want us to move to Asia?”  That wasn't His purpose at all.  His plan was to use the call process in Hong Kong to give that call to another man.  His plan was also to use that process to get my name on the list in Germany.  What?  How?  Well a lady from Trinity, Frankfurt was in worship at the Hong Kong congregation on the day of their call meeting.  She got my name, took it home and put it on the list here.  What’s more God used the experience of the Hong Kong call process to soften up our hearts and to prepare us to say yes to the call to Trinity, Frankfurt.

There are some lessons in all of this.  First, it’s okay to make plans as long as we remember that we are not lord over our plans - God is.  He can and will change them as He sees fit.  We can either complain about that or humbly submit our plans to His.  Second, He sees things that we can’t.  He can see over the horizon of the future.  He knew that my dad’s death was near.  Third, He loves us.  He loves us so much that He gave His own Son for our salvation.  We can trust Him with our future, even when we don’t understand where He is taking us.  He was making sure mom was take care of when dad died..  Fourth, He plans better journey’s than we can ever imagine.  Even when they scare us (bringing out the bomb squad) or frustrate us (having to sit in airport for 22 hours) He knows what He is doing.  The words of Proverbs 3:5-6 say it all - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

There is a prayer I love on page 262 in the old Lutheran Worship hymnal.  This prayer takes Proverbs 3 seriously.  Would you pray it with me? 

“Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.”

Oh, and Linda’s luggage still isn't here.