Lessons From the Farm #2

Always plan in a little extra time for the unexpected.  When you don't, you will run into more unexpected things than your average day.  Like the ram that got out this morning.  He's a friendly little bugger, so he was interested in what I was doing, but I was also getting in the way of him getting into something he wanted.  So I had quite the interesting battle on my hands trying to get him where he needed to be.


It's kind of what we do with God.  We go our own way and we are stubborn about being there even when it isn't good for us.  We get mad at Him when He prevents us getting into even more trouble.  He navigates us back the way we need to go, but it just means we've spent valuable time fighting instead of going into the wonderful places He has for us.  It's never truly wasted time; God still uses it.  But we maybe could have been doing something else by now if we just hadn't fought Him so hard on this.  And often, that time takes away from other people as well.


The ram that fought me this morning could have been off grazing in a nice green pasture so much sooner if he had just gone where I told him to go or not have left his field in the first place.  But his waywardness also meant that his fellow rams could not go into that nice green pasture until I was done fighting with him.  They all missed out for a bit.


God is sovereign.  We don't ruin His plans because we go our own way.  He never has to call the person He was going to hang out with and say, "Hey, I'm running late."  His timing is perfect and everything works out in the end.  But just because everything will work out does not excuse our selfish desire to go our own way.  God's plan and purpose is perfect.  When we step outside of that for our own purposes, we lose out on some of His blessings.  And we sometimes cause those around us to miss out on some blessings too.


So when you feel a little bullheaded and want to push your way through life, just remember, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence (and even if it is greener, that doesn't always means it's better).