When God’s timing disrupts your plans

Many of us have questions about hearing from God - yearning to obey Him - in parallel to walking in our own strength. I tend to ask myself whether I really heard from God or if it’s just my own understanding leading me down a path I should or shouldn’t go. Moving aimlessly between complacency, nonchalance and apathy, the confusion has previously led me down an unproductive path. In contrast, when I’ve heeded the call from my gut, I have been amazed!

To illustrate, let me share a recent, personal encounter.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to visit the Drakensberg and to go camping in Lesotho at the annual Maletsunyane Festival. In what I called an answered prayer, my sister Mimi won an all expenses paid trip to a glamping experience of her choice. She asked me to be her plus one. I agreed and together, we picked out our ideal destination based on select dates from the sponsor. Due to my availability and the fact that she hasn’t been up north, our first choice was Kruger National Park. Unfortunately we confirmed late and the only other place left to choose from was Drakensberg. The Drakensberg dates were on the same weekend I was meant to travel with friends to experience the Maletsunyane Festival. I didn’t want her to lose out on her big win so I cancelled on my friends and committed to the trip with her. Also, the year has been tough financially so an all expenses paid trip made more sense.

Deep in my heart, I wanted to experience these trips with my family (hubby, daughter, sisters and brother). With this in mind, Mimi and I sought to bring the entire family along but finances would trump our plans. We accepted that and moved along.

On the day we were meant to leave for Drakensberg, these things happened:

⏰ I wasn’t feeling as excited as I should have been. Mimi wasn’t either. In fact, we felt sleepy. 🥱

⏰ The tyre of the car we were supposed to travel in started losing airflow. I took it for a check at the tyre shop and the specialists advised to purchase a new tyre. The current one had three nails in it and a temporary fixture. ⚠️

⏰ As I was packing (yes, I only packed that morning), Bontle mentions how dizzy she felt. Initially she said it was probably caused by standing up too quickly. It wasn’t until she said “or maybe it’s my medication making me feel this way” that I became alert 🚨. Unfortunately she accidentally took an overdose of the tranquilisers I was prescribed after a car accident I had this year.

Guided by our gut feelings, we cancelled the trip. I wasn’t going to leave whilst my child was unwell. I knew the meds would wear off in a couple of hours but I wasn’t going to leave her like that. I’m glad I didn’t because before she got better, things got worse.

This encounter, which happened on one day has reiterated valuable teachings about the importance of stillness, allowing the flow of life to run its course without obstructions and most importantly, being present.

What stands out for me is this powerful message that kept echoing in my spirit upon reflection.

Allowing God to “disturb” our plans = Letting God to order our steps. This requires humility vs a hard head. This is a call for surrender. Complete surrender requires obedience. Most times what we are required to be obedient to will not make “practical” sense, prompting us to resist, and rationalise. Obedience is more about faith in God’s power than clarity about the why or what. Allow Him. Let Him.

In the end, things worked out the way God intended. I swapped the defective vehicle and traveled with my family to Limpopo. A long overdue visit to see the man who has been an instrumental father figure in our lives. We call him Grandda but honestly, he is the best father we ever had.

This experience reminded me that hearing God requires us to be still, intuitive and willing to trust Him whilst we go through a process we can’t make sense of. We talk a lot about trusting the process but I believe our ability to fully do that is a reflection of who and what we put our trust in.

I hope this post encourages you to not lose heart when your plans are seemingly not going according to your liking. I pray you take that as an indicator to lean in so that God can do His work in your life.

Stay on course with these Bible scripture references:

Ecclesiastes 3:1: "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven". 

Proverbs 16:9: “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

Proverbs 20:24: “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”