Tag Archives: god’s ways are higher than ours

Higher Ways 


The company I work for is constantly making changes in how we do things and what we offer our customers. I remember how early on in my career I would get upset with the higher ups because I didn’t think the changes were good.. I would say things like, “What are they thinking? Why would they do that? Why do they put us in this position? We are the ones who have to face the customers!” As I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve come to learn that those decisions were best for us as a company and for our customers. It turns out they look at everything differently.

I’ve learned to trust their decisions over time, even if I don’t understand them. I could say the same thing about God. There have been changes in my life that I haven’t cared for. Things have happened to me that I didn’t understand. At the time I prayed, “Why God? Why did you let this happen to me? Why did that person have to be taken out of my life? Why am I having to go through this? This doesn’t make any sense to me!” Looking back over my life, I see what God was doing in most cases.

Just like I’ve learned to trust the higher ups at my job, I’ve learned to trust God in situations I don’t understand. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘My thoughts,’ says the Lord, ‘are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours’” (GNT). God sees things differently than we do. His thoughts and plans are way above ours. While we are simply looking at a piece of the puzzle, He’s looking at the photo on the box.

He knows how everything in your life needs to fit together. He knows what needs to happen to prepare you for what’s coming in your life. Each of us has a choice to make. We can either question His every move in our life that we don’t like or we can learn to trust that He sees the bigger picture and is working things out for our good. I’m not saying we are going to understand why things happen. We just need to trust that He does and that should be enough. 

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My Expectations vs. God’s Reality

I’m getting close to my next Haiti trip. This trip has been an emotional roller-coaster for me. When I initially planned it, I had close to 40 people wanting to go. I had something at work come up on the week that we had agreed to and I couldn’t get out of. When I switched the week, it was like all the momentum was lost. Almost everyone couldn’t make it on the new week. I barely got ten people who could go. Soon after the deadline, people started contacting me letting me know they couldn’t make it after all.

I decided I would cancel the trip even though I felt strongly we were supposed to go. I began to allow my feelings to dictate my actions instead of what I knew God had said. My expectations for the trip were not being met by a long shot. I started with 40 and ended up with three from that original group. Of the ten who had signed up, five had dropped out. Money for the trip came in slowly. Out of frustration I went to God and complained. He didn’t beat me down, but He did remind me that this is about Him and not me.

I’m the type of person who likes to have a plan and to work that plan. When the plan goes out the window, I try to make a new plan. When all my plans fail, I begin to question myself and God. Did I hear Him? Is He paying attention? Why do I feel like I’m alone in this? Did I have the wrong expectations? I don’t think it’s wrong to ask God the hard questions or to be honest with Him when things don’t go as planned. He sees our hearts and knows our thoughts. Why not be honest with Him? I think He appreciates that more than us pretending that we’re ok with how things are.

Each of us have our own expectations in life, in relationships, in work, in family, in plans we make and of God. If you’ve lived more than a day, you have found out that those things rarely live up to our expectations. Plans fail. Life changes. We get dealt what we think are bad hands. Just because things don’t happen according to our plans, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t happening according to His plans. We see a small piece of the puzzle at a time and think we know where and how it fits in the whole, but God is looking at the picture on the box. He sees your life from beginning to the end and knows exactly where each piece fits and why they fit where they do. His reality is greater than our expectations.

His reality for my trip is a group of people only He could fit together. His reality is that the people He chose have the right skill sets to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish on this trip and not what I wanted to accomplish. I can fight Him and continue to be disappointed because my expectations aren’t being met or I can let go of my expectations, embrace His reality and know that what He wants to do on this trip is greater than anything I could have imagined. God always leaves that choice up to us. We can choose to be bitter and resentful or we can choose to let our plans and expectations go in order to embrace His. What’s your choice?

By the way, He sent five more people and has created a team that I could have never imagined or put together. I can’t wait to share with you what God has planned for this group!

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