Every once in awhile you come across a quote or saying that will stick with you through the years. I have recently finished a book that was full of quotes and concepts that I’m sure will stick with me for years to come.
Plan B by Pete Wilson.
Wether you love to read or not, pick this one up. It will be well worth your time. Trust me. Prepare to be disturbed, but in the best way possible. I am by no means someone who is prepared to give you a proper literary review, but if you want random thoughts and quotes from this book…read on….
One of the opening quotes of the book is:
“Plans fizzle. Expectations come to nothing. Trusted people let us down- or we let ourselves down. Dreams shatter or slip away. Has it happened to you? Plan A comes to an abrupt stop, and you’re not sure if there even is a plan B.”
I think at some point, we all have woken up and felt this way. Some in big ways. Some in small. Sometimes because our own poor choices bring us consequences that rock our world and worse yet, sometimes the poor choices of others do it for us. So how do we respond?
“When life isn’t turning out the way we had hoped, we almost always default to feeling as if God has abandoned us.”
God Himself never ever changes. Sometimes, it’s all about finding the strength to just make the choice to trust. Sometimes, you need to make this choice daily, or even hourly.
“We must decide if we are going to put our faith in what God does or in who God is.”
um, AMEN.
“Will you worship God even when He is circumstantially nowhere to be found?”
um, WOW. Just a tad bit convicting.
I think sometimes as Christians we expect that just because we pray, God will heal this disease, land us the dream job, and basically protect us from any harm. The part of this book that is really disturbing is the reminder that, that is simply not true. He has the power to do so, but we live in a fallen world. God exists and so does pain and suffering. How do you reconcile the two and how do you respond when they meet?
We need to live in a way where we are “Putting it all, including our fear of the unknown, in the hands of the One who knows everything. And then moving forward because we can trust him. Even in the dark.”
I know for myself the following statement is SO true.
“Whenever we are faithful, whenever we’re obedient, whenever we do the right thing, at some level don’t we expect that life is going to turn around for us?”
If I am going to be honest…yes, yes I do.
I have had periods in life where I am pouring every ounce of my being into something or someone, only to see utter failure be the outcome. I have had periods in my life, where I am so earnestly seeking God and trying to do the right thing and yet I find myself falling short of plan A and at the same time someone along side of me is making billions of wrong choices and finding what seems to be unending successess. This is an issue for me. I struggle with this. The lesson to be learned in it all, is I should not be living with a cause and effect mentality. The reality is I may give it all to someone and they quite frankly may turn around and spit right in my face…..and then what?
…because “even when God is with me, life is not always going to turn out the way I hoped.”
This book asks the tough questions…
“What if we viewed our hardships and challenges as opportunities to be the men or women God has created us to be? “
“Is it possible you don’t really want God? Is it possible you just want what you think God can give you?”
“Can you believe that God is in control now, even when your life isn’t?”
How fortunate that we serve a God so powerful that He can take the worst of circumstances and work them together for good. When the shortcomings and failures of others and this world that we live in affect our life and penetrate the walls of our heart felt hopes and dreams, He takes the pain and turns it into something good. The key is we need to let Him. The key is our response. If while living in the middle of plan B, we can grasp even the tiniest glimpse of the bigger picture that God is… we can begin to let go of the pain. We don’t have to worry about revenge or fear the things that we can not control. I have found after reading this book a renewed desire to live in the place of the bigger picture. “Tis such a cliche’, but….Rise above it.
“Will we ever understand our Plan B dilemmas? On this side of heaven, quite possibly not. Does the way we respond to them matter? More than you will ever know.”
“You may not have had a choice on whether you could have kids or whether your loved one passed away or wether you got fired or your husband had an affair. But you do get to choose how you respond. And in that choice lies an amazing amount of hope. That choice is what makes the journey of transformation possible.
At the time when it is absolutely the hardest time to choose right…it is absolutely the most vital time in which to do so. Drowning in pain can leave you so vulnerable to look for a quick fix and an easy way out and that will simply lead you to an absolute standstill. A road I do not want to wake up and find myself on.
“I am asking you, right in the middle of your Plan B pain, to trust the porcess that is going on in your life. It won’t be finished for a while, but it has begun.
God will finish what He started.
Wait for it.”
Read that one again. Over and over. Memorize it. Grasp it. One of the most repeated promises in the Bible is “I am with you”. I am just so deeply impacted with the truth of that. When you grab ahold of it, the peace that follows, truly begins to wipe away the pain that others and this world can bring you. Isn’t that really the bigger picture?
“You need to know the cross is not just the starting line. It’s the very centerpiece of your story with God. It’s the place where the pain of “you will have trouble” meets the triumph of ” I have defeated the world.”
I am so humbled.
