One of the things we talk about most often around here is the fact that our lives rarely go according to plan.
Then it’s time to head home, where I walk the dogs again, make dinner while my favorite playlist is going, and settle in for whatever show currently has my attention (right now, it’s The Voice). Then I make a plan for the next day, go to bed and start the process again.
I realize you didn’t ask for a play-by-play of my life, but I’m making a point here…
Every now and then, something will interrupt the above schedule. A flat tire. A sick puppy. Holidays and snow delays. But by and large, my daily plans work out the way I intended.
So if our days go according to plan, and our lives are an accumulation of days, then how do we get to the point where we look back and realize that life has not gone according to plan?
Isn’t it weird to think about? When you stop to consider the overall impact of our daily decisions, it’s kinda mind-blowing. One thought shifts a single action, and the entire outcome is impacted.
What did you think your life would look like at this point?
If our days go according to plan, and our lives are an accumulation of days, then how do we get to the point where we look back and realize that life has not gone according to plan?
It depends on which version of Kylie you ask. 7-year-old me would have told you she’d be a marine biologist and married to Joey from New Kids on the Block. Today’s version of me finds him a bit repulsive. Sorry, Joey…I grew up and so did my taste in men. Still super into dolphins, though.
17-year-old Kylie was going to be a pop star. But those plans were hijacked when the 19-year-old version of me heard the Lord say, “I’m calling you to ministry.” Which was really confusing for 22-year-old me who graduated college and moved back home to be a teacher because there were zero open doors for a ministry calling.
30-year-old me saw a path forward for ministry, but still no opportunities on the table, so she put her head down, volunteered to help launch a church while working in two different schools, finishing her masters degree, and coaching three different extracurricular programs. (30-year-old Kylie had trouble saying no to things…)
One thought shifts a single action, and the entire outcome is impacted.
And now, 40-year-old me is finally working in full time ministry at the church she helped plan ten years ago. Living in the career I prayed for, then waited for, and now working alongside some of the most incredible men and women of God, with a front row seat to seeing the Kingdom of God advance.
Q: How did I go from Mrs. New Kid on the Block with a wetsuit and a dolphin whistle to a single worship leader who might be running late for soundcheck because she woefully underestimated the line at Starbucks?
A: One day at a time.
The days are long, but the years are short. Isn’t that what they say? I can remember around year ten of the twelve I spent in public education, I was beginning to feel the desperation to escape that career.
I was over the job. Not the kids. Not the families. But the job. It was getting boring. New kids every year, but the same content. The same core issues from student to student, family to family.
The days are long, but the years are short.
Isn’t that what they say?
I felt I’d learned everything there was to know. Each year brought new professional development buzzwords; the same old concepts wrapped in shiny new packages. Then in year twelve, there was this one student who couldn’t seem to succeed in any of his classes with any of his teachers.
Except me. I was his exception, and he became my mission. When that year ended, I prayed, “Lord, if you give me another kid like that, I could do this for another year.”
But that year never came. I had previously learned all I needed to know about the job. But in year twelve, God taught me what I needed to know about loving his people. One day at a time.
The grace was ending for that phase of my life. But because of a word spoken over a decade before that, I knew what was next. I knew it was ministry. I just didn’t know how. And then one day, I knew.
One verse. One promise.
And a Bible full of lives that didn’t go according to plan.
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