Planning for the Unplanned

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." Thomas Edison

In yesterday's daily phone conversation, my mom was disappointed because I had not posted pictures of Knox and Ben in costume from Friday night trunk-or-treating.  Let me preface the photos by explaining that Knox made his costume.  He was Yoda, and he colored a sheet of yellow construction paper for his mask, making jagged holes by hand for eyes and mouth.  He used curling ribbon to secure it to his head.  He even picked out clothes that looked like something that Yoda would really wear-- under his Jedi robe.  He did it all himself without instruction or help, AND he hated it. "It doesn't look at all like I wanted it to!" was his lament and then the question, "Why don't things turn out the way you planned?" That, my son, is the million-dollar question.

I saved the mask before he scrapped it in the trash, and with the help of the ninja turtle masks I had just bought for the green forehead and rubber band I thought might be useful for Yoda-creating, we made a mask he could live with and used birthday party hats for the ears--and it worked.  With his Yoda syntax and green face paint, he was a dead ringer for the wizened alien jedi.  So, here, Mawmaw, are your pictures:

Ben also jumped into the "homemade costume" idea by creating his telescope and filling up his surprise pockets with all kinds of "weapons."

We had a fun evening.  And, I think, Knox was pleased with his costume, even better since by making it himself he was initiated in the unending lesson of life happens differently.

Henri Nouwen writes that discipline makes room for the unplanned, a sort of planning for the unplanned if you will:

Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on.

That first step--prevent everything in your life from being filled up--is my challenge right now.  We had a wonderfully busy weekend--a fabulous first WIC brunch on Titus 2:4 with a guest speaker and tasty gourmet spread, a fun birthday party for Ben's close friend, and the kick-off to the youth Christmas musical, Operation Christmas Child shoebox project, and first practice for adult Christmas cantata.  And I wouldn't want to have missed any of it.  But it's that time in between events, homeschooling, cooking dinner, cleaning house, that I need to be disciplined about setting aside specific time for what's really important:

 to just hang with D, listen to Knox, read to Ben, talk with my husband and most important of all, quiet solitude to meet God. 

I don't want to miss nuggets from His Word like what I read not so long ago from Jeremiah 6:16 "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for your souls."  I don't want to miss experiencing peace that can only come through talking with, waiting on, basking in Him.  Exhortations like Colossians 3:12-14:

  "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, 

kindness, humility, meekness,and patience bearing with one another

 and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; 

as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Wait a minute. . .perfect harmony.  Is it possible? In an article I read recently, Dr. Charles Stanley advised to pray for unity, to pray that God would cause you to be a peacemaker:

"Here are some of Paul’s words to the church at Ephesus: 'I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace'" Ephesians 4:1-3

Forbear in love.  Be diligent about peace.  Set aside time with God for the unexpected.  Know that things will not go as planned, but take it from Thomas Edison, a guy whose name is nearly synonymous with inventing:  mistakes can be serendipitous.