I have a Type-A Personality. I like control. I like to make plans and stick to my plans. So, it's often tiny, unexpected complications in the day that frustrate the living daylights out of me, because they muck up my plans.
Like last week Wednesday, before the Memorial Day weekend. I headed over to Trinity for Wednesday Bible Class. I was towing my trailer, because I had it all planned. Bible class. Then a communion visit at 2 PM. Then tow my trailer over to Wally World to buy some large planters for outside, and 24 bags of topsoil and compost for my raised bed containers. After that I'd circle around to Ace Hardware and pick up plants and 3 trees. One apple, one crab apple as a pollinator, and one cherry.
I had it all planned. Until I looked down at the instrument cluster on my 2013 Chevy Traverse. A red light I had never seen before screamed at me, "Service Battery Charging System." And my gauge showing volts? It had bottomed out. "Great," I thought. "I bet my alternator died."
I got to church. I made a few phone calls. I tried to concentrate during ABC. Then asked Lyle Luchterhand if he could follow me over to Minocqua Chevrolet where I would drop the car off for service. He agreed. I made a few more phone calls and canceled my communion visit for the day. Then I disconnected my trailer and left that in the church parking lot. I limped my way over to the dealership parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief when I parked it right next to the service entrance. In the meantime, I had informed Lyle I was going to visit service first. Sales second. Would he wait? Yes!
So that's what I did. I left my 2013 at the dealership where it waits for an alternator. And in the sales department? I test drove the exact 2023 Chevy Traverse I had checked out online over the last few weeks-- quite often. I had planned to look at it after Memorial Day when I wasn't so busy. But after a test drive, the deal was done. Lyle gave me a ride back to church to pick up my trailer. Oops! I had forgotten the keys for the hitch lock on my 2013 key ring--which of course was back at the dealership. "Let's not go back. The traffic is crazy." So, we pushed the trailer off of the parking lot, between the sheds. Lyle brought me home. The new Traverse was delivered Saturday morning last weekend.
However, just about every day since then, my plans have--in one way or another--exploded. Leading to a loaner F-150 with a trailer hitch so I could bring my trailer home (and buy everything I had planned to get on Wednesday). Then a dead battery in the loaner F-150, which prompted me to think, "You have got to be kidding me!"
It takes life's complications to remind me of a very basic truth. I am not a god. I am not in control. The Lord tips my life upside down and shakes it around with complications to teach me. "A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD makes his steps secure." (Proverbs 16:9) "There are many plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that will prevail." (Proverbs 19:21) "I know, LORD, that a man’s way is not his own, nor can a man direct his own steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)
Even though I know all these things, too often my rock-hard German/Norwegian brain forgets. So, the Lord rearranges my life according to his plans. And when I get flustered by this? Anxious? Through Scripture, the Spirit focuses my attention back on Jesus who says, "For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. . .Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?... So do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” ... Certainly, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:25-33)
After I worked through my little self-pity party over my ruined planning, I had to smile. When all was said and done, I got the new car I wanted. I will get my old one repaired to use a back-up and winter car.
And a moment later, this thought hit me! That alternator could have died the weekend before, when I took a load of furniture down to my kids who live in Milton, a bedroom community for Janesville. But the trip went as smooth as silk, down and back. Was there an angel monitoring the alternator so it died where I would be able to get it into a shop, and at that same dealership buy the very car I had been looking at, plus have a friend patiently wait through the whole process and then give me a ride home?
Our Lord guides our lives in ways we would never dream of--through blown-up plans, disappointments, raging storms, and also His unexpected blessings, pure gifts of grace.
Privileged to Serve,
Rev. Glenn Schwanke
Like last week Wednesday, before the Memorial Day weekend. I headed over to Trinity for Wednesday Bible Class. I was towing my trailer, because I had it all planned. Bible class. Then a communion visit at 2 PM. Then tow my trailer over to Wally World to buy some large planters for outside, and 24 bags of topsoil and compost for my raised bed containers. After that I'd circle around to Ace Hardware and pick up plants and 3 trees. One apple, one crab apple as a pollinator, and one cherry.
I had it all planned. Until I looked down at the instrument cluster on my 2013 Chevy Traverse. A red light I had never seen before screamed at me, "Service Battery Charging System." And my gauge showing volts? It had bottomed out. "Great," I thought. "I bet my alternator died."
I got to church. I made a few phone calls. I tried to concentrate during ABC. Then asked Lyle Luchterhand if he could follow me over to Minocqua Chevrolet where I would drop the car off for service. He agreed. I made a few more phone calls and canceled my communion visit for the day. Then I disconnected my trailer and left that in the church parking lot. I limped my way over to the dealership parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief when I parked it right next to the service entrance. In the meantime, I had informed Lyle I was going to visit service first. Sales second. Would he wait? Yes!
So that's what I did. I left my 2013 at the dealership where it waits for an alternator. And in the sales department? I test drove the exact 2023 Chevy Traverse I had checked out online over the last few weeks-- quite often. I had planned to look at it after Memorial Day when I wasn't so busy. But after a test drive, the deal was done. Lyle gave me a ride back to church to pick up my trailer. Oops! I had forgotten the keys for the hitch lock on my 2013 key ring--which of course was back at the dealership. "Let's not go back. The traffic is crazy." So, we pushed the trailer off of the parking lot, between the sheds. Lyle brought me home. The new Traverse was delivered Saturday morning last weekend.
However, just about every day since then, my plans have--in one way or another--exploded. Leading to a loaner F-150 with a trailer hitch so I could bring my trailer home (and buy everything I had planned to get on Wednesday). Then a dead battery in the loaner F-150, which prompted me to think, "You have got to be kidding me!"
It takes life's complications to remind me of a very basic truth. I am not a god. I am not in control. The Lord tips my life upside down and shakes it around with complications to teach me. "A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD makes his steps secure." (Proverbs 16:9) "There are many plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that will prevail." (Proverbs 19:21) "I know, LORD, that a man’s way is not his own, nor can a man direct his own steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)
Even though I know all these things, too often my rock-hard German/Norwegian brain forgets. So, the Lord rearranges my life according to his plans. And when I get flustered by this? Anxious? Through Scripture, the Spirit focuses my attention back on Jesus who says, "For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. . .Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?... So do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” ... Certainly, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:25-33)
After I worked through my little self-pity party over my ruined planning, I had to smile. When all was said and done, I got the new car I wanted. I will get my old one repaired to use a back-up and winter car.
And a moment later, this thought hit me! That alternator could have died the weekend before, when I took a load of furniture down to my kids who live in Milton, a bedroom community for Janesville. But the trip went as smooth as silk, down and back. Was there an angel monitoring the alternator so it died where I would be able to get it into a shop, and at that same dealership buy the very car I had been looking at, plus have a friend patiently wait through the whole process and then give me a ride home?
Our Lord guides our lives in ways we would never dream of--through blown-up plans, disappointments, raging storms, and also His unexpected blessings, pure gifts of grace.
Privileged to Serve,
Rev. Glenn Schwanke
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