When your plans don't seem to be working out

I think that probably everyone can agree that when plans fall through from something that they were excited about doing, that it is pretty disappointing… That idea, or even picture that you had in your head of what the plans were going to look like, how they were going to go, the things you were going to say when you saw that person, what the place looked like you were going too, and just all the other expectations that you had, just kinda feel like they didn't even matter… I know I have felt this way. 
    Personally the first time I really felt this was the beginning of freshmen year. This was the time when all the select softball players were starting to commit to colleges, and of course, I started to get pretty worried when the top 5 school list that I made, wasn't really working out the way I had expected… To back up, when I was in 8th grade my parents made me sit down with them and write out the top 5 schools that I would be interested in playing softball for in college, so I could start really going to camps, emailing them, and inviting them to watch my games. This list at first didn't really have any specific order, but as I started going to camps and talking to coaches, my list became smaller and I had really narrowed it down to just several schools that I would genuinely want to play for… And just a disclaimer, HBU was not in the list of those several schools… 
   I knew that I was either going to play for the University of Houston, where my parents played sports at, or at Baylor, where my Grandad had played at… And I just knew it. I had made fixed plans for that. 
   So 8th grade came to an end and besides the several insane commits that happened in like 6th grade, or that year in 8th grade, freshman year was pretty much the year that girls really did start committing to colleges. 
   So I knew my plan. I was going to keep going to UH and Baylor camps, kill it at the camp, and I was going to get offered by one of them, commit, and that would be that. Looking back now it's actually funny how sure I was of that plan. I even remember on signing day freshmen year telling one of my friends, “watch, senior year I'll be at one of those booths signing to UH.”... 
   So all of my freshmen year I was going to camp after camp, sending email after email. I played so much softball that year, it would make your head spin if I even tried to list all of the camps, games, tournaments, practices, workouts, hitting lessons, copy and pasting of emails every weekend to send coaches my schedule, and so much more. It was exhausting. To be honest, I made sure that I didn't have any grammar errors in my emails, but other than that, I didn't really try as hard to wow coaches in my emails besides UH and Baylor… I would literally sit at my kitchen table for an hour at a time coming up with the perfect words to send to those coaches at Houston and Baylor… 
   So to kind of some up how that went with those two schools, I’ll keep it short… If UH or Baylor was at a game, that game was just plain ugly for me… At UH camp, I could never hit well. And the day before I went to overnight Baylor camp, I pulled my hamstring… So maybe it was the nerves, maybe it was bad luck… Or maybe it was just the Author of my life doing what he does best and absolutely wrecking my plans. Which thank God for his wrecking of my silly plans, because they never seem to even come remotely close to the goodness of His. 
   Anyway, after many, many, many, camps later, I still hadn’t got any interest really, and I'm not going to lie, I was discouraged. I felt like God was failing ME and MY plans… It was like I had laid out my ideas and plans for my life in front of God and was like “okay make it happen for me.”... And He wasn’t doing what I wanted Him to. And it made me angry, and really just confused. 
   But that summer going into sophomore year, I got a call from my select coach and she asked me if I had ever considered looking at Houston Baptist University. She told me that they had been watching and keeping up with my playing and were very interested… So to keep an awesome but long story short, I went to one of their camps, and I still think to this day, that is the best camp I have ever had, and a few weeks later I got invited on a visit, got offered a scholarship, and just a few weeks after that called them and committed to play softball there. Now I'm getting to go play at a dream school and being able to study exactly what I want to do under amazing professors. 
See, I had made plans in my heart. I had painted a picture in my head of how my life was going to go, where I was going to play softball at and God had something so much better in mind. The Lord through all of my worrying, in that process, had a purpose. He never disregarded my plans, He just gently told me that He had better ones for me… He was right there in the middle of my crazy busy schedule during that time in my life, and when I hadn't even noticed, He placed the HBU coaches at MY softball game. When I step back and look at that time in life, I can see so much more now than just a recruiting process. God revealed to me at that time His story of redemption through the Houston Baptist Coaches. Think about it, I was running after the wrong coaches, but when I wasn't even looking, HBU was watching me and was seeking me out. Kind of like how constantly as Humans we seek the wrong things in life. Whether its the wrong friend group at school, drugs, alcohol, partying, money, sex, or other products of our fallen nature, God is seeking us throughout ALL of it. And just as all I had to do was accept the offer HBU had given me, all we have to do is accept the gift of eternal life and forgiveness He has placed before us… In life, it's great to set goals for yourself. But don't let your goals become a FIXED plan that you have set for yourself. As humans, we are going to have times where we fall into a mindset of “God's not living up to my plans' ', but that is the enemy trying to discourage us. Because in reality, it's not a matter of HIM not living up to OUR plans, it's US not having FAITH in His. His plans are GOOD and PERFECT, and so much better than anything we can imagine. In Proverbs 19:21 it reads, “Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Whatever you are dealing with right now in life, and whatever “plans” you have made that you feel are just completely falling through, before you get angry at God, take a step back and ask Him to reveal the plans that He has set forth, not your own. Start to make it a habit in every aspect of your life to ask God to put your plans aside, and allow His to prevail.

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