Have you ever had something unexpected happen that just threw you for a loop? Life has a tendency to throw things our way that we have no idea what to do with. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I believe that God wants us to trust Him regardless of what our circumstances look like.

I am a person that worries and my number one sin is fear. My mind is always thinking about the worst-case scenario and trying to come up with a back-up plan. Then my back-up plan needs another backup plan and before you know it I have plans A, B, and C and so on.

There is one thing I have figured out and that is my plans don’t matter because God is ultimately in control. One my favorite verses is “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.- Jeremiah 29:11

God has plans for my life and my circumstances did not take Him by surprise. He knows what’s ahead of me and He’s got plans.

I keep remembering an exercise I did with our kiddos about 2 years ago which demonstrated this point perfectly. I got one of our puzzles and laid it face down at one end of the room. The directions were for one person at a time to pick up a puzzle piece without looking at it, take it to our coffee table, and try to fit it in somewhere. If they couldn’t find where to put it, they needed to set it aside to see what came next.

As the kiddos put the puzzle together, they set the pieces that confused them aside but as the picture came together they began to make more sense of those pieces and were able to fit them together.

Sometimes our life seems like this puzzle. We are holding a piece that makes no sense because we don’t understand how it’s going to even fit into our life. But that’s when God steps in and we begin to see He has a plan which we can trust.

As I look back over my life, I’ve had a lot of those pieces that just don’t seem to fit anywhere. But as time went by, I see how God has taken those pieces and made them into a beautiful part of my life.

Sometimes there is even an ugly piece, one that causes me shame and embarrassment. I have no idea how God is going to work this into my puzzle, but yet He does. You see, those ugly pieces give me character which makes me unique. Those ugly pieces are the ones that teach me to completely rely on God for my very breath. Those ugly pieces are the picture of His redemption because the only way they can possibly fit is through God’s love and mercy.

Redemption is one of my favorite words and it means the action of being saved from sin. Wow! What a thought! I don’t have to be perfect because I am redeemed!

I remember the day this hit home with me. I was struggling as a new mama of a large family. I was very tired and cranky. I was getting used to functioning with little to no sleep while navigating the emotional roller coaster of foster care. I felt so guilty because I knew I wasn’t acting the way I should.

I was listening to a podcast by Heidi St. John who was talking about how we as moms don’t’ have to be perfect because we are redeemed. There was such freedom for me in that statement!

I was struggling because I wanted to make the perfect decision and act the perfect way. When I didn’t I would feel upset and guilty for what I had done. It was at that moment I learned I need to take all my expectations and sin to God and let His grace redeem me. I am learning to rely on Him and try to do the right thing in these times.

I don’t have to be perfect, I’m redeemed!

When I am presented with the unexpected I have a few goals:

• Thrive, not just survive
• Don’t worry
• Have joy
• Do what makes you successful

Thrive, not just survive

I believe God wants us to thrive and not just survive this life of ours. When something happens to me that is unexpected, it tends to paralyze me. It’s like a switch in my brain is flipped and I go into survival mode where I must protect myself.

Honestly, I think this is probably a normal response initially but I am learning that I don’t want to stay in that mode. I want to thrive in spite of my hardship. The word thrive means to flourish, prosper, and to grow vigorously.

Grow vigorously, that’s a thought. In spite of my pain, I want to grow with energy and I don’t think being paralyzed is going to do that.

Don’t worry

I told you at the beginning of this article that my biggest sin is fear and worry. It weighs me down as my mind takes me to places and through things that have not even happened yet.

I often relate this to an experience we had a couple of years ago. I think we had eight kiddos at the time and we were driving in our twelve passenger Nissan van to Six Flags in St. Louis, Missouri.

We live in the country and so to get anywhere we have to take a lot of curvy back roads. We were driving along and came to a detour the county had put up. The signs told us to take a right onto a gravel road as our detour. We were hesitant but we assumed that the county’s highway department knew what they were doing and so we made the turn.

Big mistake! As we crept along in our van slowly, we came to a river with a ford. It was not very wide and had a small amount of water trickling through it.

At this point, we didn’t know what to do. Do we turn around or just move forward? We decided to give it a try because, well, the county roads department had to know what they were doing, right?

So we started to ford the river and almost made it all the way across without incident when we got stuck in the rocks on the river bank on the other side. Rick tried to back up and pull forward but it did no good. We were stuck! We were stuck on a riverbank in a van with eight kiddos!

Once we determined that we were going nowhere, I got out and walked a little way up the hill to get a cell phone signal. I called our roadside assistance and asked them to send a tow truck that could wench us out.

Eventually, he showed up and had us back on the road headed for our fun day out.

The reason I’m telling you this story is because we are a lot like this when we worry and allow anxiety to take over. We take our focus off of God and we get stuck in the river of fear of the unknown and anxiety. Then we have to have someone help us get back on the road of trusting God again.

Don’t be like us and keep driving down a road you know is not the right way. Stop, turn “your car” around like we should of that day. Otherwise, you need to call for help.

The Bible says, in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” I think that pretty much says it all!

I am going to choose not to have the spirit of fear but rely on God’s love and power to fight that river of anxiety and the fear of the unknown.

Have Joy

As I talked about earlier, when things happen that scare us we tend to go into survival mode determined to simply live and make it to the next day while hoping our circumstances will change.

I believe God wants me to live and thrive even when my circumstances don’t change. How do we do that? In the Bible in the book of Nehemiah, he says the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Wait, what? Joy in my most desperate times will strengthen me? That sounds like the opposite of what I do. I need to trust God with all my puzzle pieces and live in His joy because I know He is going to take care of me and my family.

Do what makes you successful

When the unexpected happens, I’ve realized I must continue to do what has made our family successful in the past. The temptation to just sit and feel sorry for ourselves is very real.

Now I am not going to say that sitting and processing the circumstance is not necessary, it is. It’s just important that we don’t stay there. We have to act in faith and pray for God to help us make the next right decision.

Oftentimes, it’s about focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and taking the next step. If there is one thing I’ve learned, God never fails me. He has a plan and it’s bigger than I can ever imagine! I must trust Him.

Thanks for reading! I hope this article encourages you to trust God with those puzzling puzzle pieces. He’s got this!