Life Changing Events
One of God’s blessings is our inability to know the future; I’m reminded of Matthew 6:34 where our Lord tells us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” The well known quote by Kay Lyons also comes to mind, “Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have — so spend it wisely.”
By nature I am a planner; it is my normal pattern to think through and plan out everything I can everyday. This is often very frustrating to my wife who is much more spontaneous than I am; she is known to get annoyed with me when I ask her what her plans are for the day. The truth of the matter is she may have a general idea what she wants to accomplish that day but has given no further thought to laying out a schedule for achieving her objectives.
Whether one is more spontaneous or inclined to try and plan everything there is one thing that applies equally to both, and that is the element of the unexpected. As I mentioned in my blog on the unexpected, “Life has shown me that many of the most significant, life-changing events have been unplanned, unexpected, and happened without warning; this has been so often the case as to become virtually axiomatic.”
These unexpected events can be on a personal scale or they can involve an entire society or even the world; in this context I think back to World War II and the unexpected changes wrought by that amazing episode in history. Another example is the events surrounding the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Unexpected Consequences
A variation of the unexpected event is the expected event with unexpected consequences, sometimes these can be funny but sometimes they are tragic; there are TV shows which entertain by featuring expected events with humorous, unexpected consequences.
I believe the 2008 national election was an expected event with unexpected consequences. Since that election we have been gradually discovering the nature of those consequences and discovering what was intended when it was promised to “Fundamentally change America.”
How did this happen? How is it a little known Senator with minimal performance in office was nominated for the highest office in the land and then got himself elected as President of the United States?
I’ll pick this up in the next blog.
davidbowerkingwood 
Being a planner, I assumed everyone was. One day I asked my grown son what his plans were for the day. He gave me the most puzzled look and said, “Mom, I don’t PLAN my day. My day happens to me. I just go along for the ride.” In an instant, this tremendous “shift” in mentality took place. God love us all!!!
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By: Anne Tanner on October 16, 2012
at 5:08 am
Anne:
It is liberating when one discovers the personality types; distinctly different personalities are not only OK, they’re normal. My wife got interested in personalities several years ago and wound up getting training in the subject and became a certified personality trainer. As her husband I was carried along for the ride and both of us have benefitted greatly from the knowledge she gained and shared in part with me.
God not only loves us, he designed us that way, and our differences are not accidental. After we became tuned into personality types we noticed our cats at the time had three distinct personalities as well. One was a peaceful, one was a playful, and one was a powerful and they were consistently that way; they each had a distinct personality type.
Our God is so extravagant; I suspect that all of His creation enjoys a diversity that goes far beyond what we might suspect.
David
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By: davidbowerkingwood on October 16, 2012
at 6:22 am