Joy in the Unplanned

Have you ever been challenged by negative thoughts or depression? I have never personally suffered from true depression (thankfully) but I have gone through periods where I’ve just wondered: “God, just answer me one question: Why?” And in those journeys, I have sometimes lost the joy that normally accompanies me.

I recently finished a book entitled When I Lay My Isaac Down by Carol Kent. This was a very good yet challenging book (I cried through every chapter). Carol writes about our need to let go of our “Isaacs” in order to embrace God’s plan in our lives. An Isaac is any unexpected experience that can/has drastically changed our plans/hopes/dreams for our own future. These are the things we need put aside so that we may move toward His plans/hopes/dreams for our future – even when we don’t like it and/or can’t comprehend the answer to the “why” question.

An Isaac could be:

• The picture you had for your family that has changed as a result of a divorce, death of a spouse, death of a child or incarceration of a family member


• The picture you had for your life that has not been realized
  
• Loss of identity/income/lifestyle when one loses a job


• Loss of health due to cancer or another illness
  
• Birth of a child with special needs, etc.

These are all examples of “Isaacs” as in when Abraham was called to put side his dreams for his son – the son God had promised him and had outlined great plans for years earlier. God was now instructing Abraham to sacrifice his Isaac as an act of obedience. Can you imagine??

Abraham knew and trusted God with THE BEST PLAN and after many years of ‘walking with God’, wise Abraham knew that God must have a mighty plan albeit a different plan and one Abraham couldn’t yet comprehend. In obedience, Abraham literally “laid his Isaac down”.

I actually can imagine this request. I had a very similar request for my child (although God didn’t specifically instruct me to kill my son; FYI, that would just be wrong in the New Testament error in which we live!).

Over the course of less than a year, I had three distinct Isaac moments in which God challenged me to trust Him with His plan. These three distinct moments included:

• The end of a marriage via divorce (changed vision of my family)


• The near loss of a child in which I was called to obedience in the journey (so much so that I changed my child’s middle name to Isaac even before reading this book!)
  
• The death of a close family member (changed vision of my family)


• The incarceration of a close family member (changed vision of my family)

I now consider two of these experiences real blessings in my life. The other…I’m not there yet.

I do trust God that He has THE plan for my family and although the future will always look and feel different than anyone in my family had ever imagined, blessings will come and a close walk with the Lord is the obedience He is currently (and always) seeking…even when there isn’t an answer to: “God, just answer me: Why?”

Are you in a season of your life where the plans you’d made have changed? Have you lost your job? Did your spouse walk out on your marriage/family? Are you terminally ill? Has a close family member died? Are you new to raising a child with special needs? In other words: Does your future look different from what you’d planned?

If you are hurting, I encourage you to consider “Laying Your Isaac Down”, trusting that the Creator of the Universe as an incredible plan for your life regardless of how different that life is from the one you’d dreamed or the one that just seems logical.

Joy can return. Goodness can come out of sorrow and pain. How do I know? I’m a walking testament. He can do amazing things when you trust and obey Him even if you are living the life you hadn’t prayed for…unspeakable pain, seemingly hopeless circumstances, relentless grief, endless sorrow, etc.

Joy defined: “intense happiness of great delight, that which gives rise to this emotion, or on which the emotion centers.”

Understanding authentic joy requires us to focus on “that which gives rise to the emotion”: God. Jesus. Holy Spirit.

As Christians, we have hope! With hope, joy can return…even if the journey is not as we’d have ever planned.

Joy is having God on the inside regardless of what is going on outside! It’s centered around faith, endurance, obedience, love.

Instead of "Why?", a better focus in unexpected circumstances is:
-What next?
-How can I use this experience to bless others?
-What is the next chapter about?