We have one day here in my neck of the woods before we get hit with another blizzard. The one last week was rather paralyzing to us. The weather wreaked havoc on my weekly ritual of visiting my Iraqi friend. So annoying.
Everyone just wants to get back into their routine. I do, too. However, I've kinda lost sight of what "routine" is for me these days. Just when I think I'm getting a routine, something happens and it's knocked out of sync. After my accident last month, I stopped my Tuesday painting classes. Too dopey to drive.
I've never really been much of a planner. I've always sorta gone with the flow of the day. I may plan to clean closets but have hubby or a friend call and ask if I want to have lunch, and the messy closets are left for another day. Today I must have Haylee and Kinsey over for some grandma time. We usually spend two or three days a week together--painting, eating Chinese at the mall, and visiting our Iraqi friend and her little boy.
It occurs to me how my routine ties into the routines of others. Sometimes when I can't do something, it prohibits another from doing something that has become routine for them. It breaks the pace and flow of a normally smooth day or week. When this happens we have to make changes, allowances for what we'd originally scheduled or hoped to do. Sometimes we feel frustrated, annoyed, or angry because our lives are turned upside down.
We shouldn't. We need to be so rooted in the plans and will of God that we see the changes as tiny corrections to make His purpose come about. When NASA plans a space launch to the moon, they coordinate that launch with weather, the orbit of the earth, and many other factors. Once the rocket lifts off, the techs in charge are constantly making little corrections to keep them on course for the final destination. We do the same thing when we drive across town. We make tiny corrections to avoid potholes, to allow another to cut into our pathway, to avert accidents--in order to reach our destination.
I thought I was getting my car back last week, only to be told Allstate is going to total it. When I searched for a car this weekend, the only Malibu that could be purchased with the amount of money they are offering is three years older than mine and has an additional 20,000 miles on it. It doesn't seem fair to me that I should have to downgrade what I had before the accident. But life is not always fair. It snows on most all of us. It rains on all of us. We all have our plans interrupted, our goals pre-empted, our hopes dashed.
Today I was called from Enterprise and told I have to return my rental car. Allstate will not pay for it anymore. I have no car, and they have decided they have no more obligation to me. I'm truly not sure what happens from here. What I had planned for my routine has been circumvented by Allstate's routine. It is the way of things. I can only pray for grace to accept things as they come. And am so comforted that the Spirit brings to my mind, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." Prov. 3:5-6. selahV
