Changing Life's Plans

"20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephesians 4:20-24 (NIV)

Sod being removed

And I was very sure at that time…that I would not be mowing the lawn for a while. I forgot. There is no stability with life’s plans. They are always changing. I found the green flyer I kept and my husband called the man who ended up removing the sod for us.

But my husband and I decided we could pick up from there. We decided to finish the lawn ourselves by replacing the grasses with gravel.

After laying down the fabric that would prevent the weeds one afternoon he got home from work, we ordered the gravel. The following morning, everything was delivered. It was a piece of cake in the front yard as the truck just dumped the gravel in the middle and all we needed to do was to rake and level the little bits of stones.

my husband leveling the gravel

After waiting for the day’s heat to cool off a bit, it was more laborious to haul the gravel piled in the side yard to the back yard. Oh how our muscles ached scooping and scooping and my husband pushing the wheelbarrow many, many times. It felt like forever. When night time came, both of us were moaning. But we both knew, it was a good kind of pain. We ended up laughing so hard.

I noticed some neighbors sort of stopped at their tracks to look at our yard. One couldn’t help but asked my husband when he was outside why we removed our grasses. He told the neighbor, we wanted to save water and with that, we anticipated a drop with our water bill.

“I’m very sorry, Ms. Rcubes,” the lady at the other end of the line uttered. I could sense she was trying to find the right words to comfort me.

My fight against some people at work was taking a long time. I knew that beforehand. But I didn’t have any other option. I must go through that process if I wanted the light to shine in some shady places going on.

“Give it about 6 more months,” she stated, relieved when I responded that it was okay and I knew the process would be slow. She must sense the calmness from my tone.

She would never know the reason of how just like my husband and I changed our yards, removing the grasses and replacing them with gravel to save water, I had accepted the change from my work despite being treated unfairly, as a part of God’s plan for me. I began to understand the moment I let Jesus into my heart that my life would never be the same, requiring the “constant” to “change”. Needing to step out from my comfort zones to zones of afflictions.  Because in doing so, I must work hard to remove the old habits to be new in order for me to serve God.

6 months sounded like a long time. But I only wanted to face what I needed to, a day at a time. My old habits never developed in a day. They developed during many years and would not be fast in changing them. A day at a time. To change my life’s plans and know what God truly willed for me, knowing that my life’s purpose was not what I wanted but what He had planned from the start. He had already given the tools for me to use. The question would be… “What choices would I make?”

I saw a glimpse of a father, toting his young child on his back, stopping his walk and not seeing me from the front door, he stood in our front yard, looking at every corner as if he was mapping the landscape in our front yard. So it is with my Christian life…People are watching…

"¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." - 2 Peter 3:17-18(NIV)