According to Plan...

(image from http://www.architecture411.com/common/notes/1/plans.jpg)

 My first visit to East Africa was in January 2005.  The first major hitch in my plan was that I my original contact in Kenya seemingly had dropped off the face of the earth (or maybe into the Rift Valley), and I therefore had no one to pick me up at the airport -- and I was in London about to board a plane.  I quickly tapped out an email, shot up a prayer, and hit send.

When I deboarded in Kenya, there was a missionary woman waiting for me.  She was the mother of the former roommate of a cousin of a friend of a friend of mine.  Here are the first words she spoke to me:

"Are you Travis?  You've just learned your first lesson about Africa.  Plan A won't work.  Neither will Plan B.  And you can forget about Plan C."

My brief time in Kenya and Uganda confirmed her words, as have many missionaries and East Africans since.

But you know what?  I realized last week that it's not so different here in the States.  All I wanted on Thursday was a haircut (and a Cafe au Lait from that great little French place in Sewickley). I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say my hair is longer today rather than shorter, so obviously plans A-G didn't work.  Driving home frustrated I began thinking about  this at each of the 4 stoplights, and for some reason I kept hearing the refrain in my head, "...slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13.8).

As I reflected on the surprising connection between a frustrated haircut and an apocalyptic text, I had the following thought: God is outside time.  (Hardly original, I know. ) Right from the foundation of the world, according to Scripture, the Lamb was slain.  This event is the center of gravity for all of humanity's history.  Yet, from our perspective as linear, time-bound beings, it didn't happen until the 30's AD.  However, we read of the crucifixion and its outflow happening at the creation of the world. Since God exists eternally and in eternity, his plans don't necessarily follow a linear path.

And there's the rub.

As a follower of Jesus, I live according to God's plan, not my own plans.   I'm quite linear, as a human living in time.  God is not. That's why I'm often frustrated; that's why he isn't.  Underneath my frustration about my foiled haircut attempt is the fear that I'm running out of time.  Time isn't an issue for its Creator.  He is focused on a deeper work in me, in my family, in our communities, in our world -- his plan.

For just a moment, at the third stoplight as I thought about all this, I was able to be present to that greater work, that plan.  And I was at rest.  By the time I pulled in my driveway, of course, the stress began to build again.  These past several days, however, I've tried to make a practice of returning the third stoplight.