When God Says, “No.”

      “Man plans, and God laughs.” That is an old Yiddish proverb, and apparently a Public Enemy album. Our speaker for high school chapel today challenged the young people to consider what they will do when they face setbacks and that got me thinking back to when I was their age. If you had asked 17 year old me where I saw myself in 35 years, here is what I probably would have answered.

I would be winding down my career as an electrical engineer. I would be married and probable have a couple of kids. I would own a nice house and probably have some acreage to go with it. Of course I would have the car to go with the house. All in all, I would be living the American dream. If you had listened closely while I was answering you, you would probably heard faint laughter in the background as God chuckled at my plans.

      Here I am, 35 years later. I am in my 24^th year of teaching, not engineering. I am still single. I have no children. I rent a 900 square foot townhome with a yard I can cut with a weedeater in 15 minutes. I drive a 1992 F150 with over 250,000 miles on it. Not exactly the American dream.

I had my life all planned out and it sounded great to me. God, however, said, “No.” God told me no and I am so thankful for that. God directed me to education and speaking life into the next generations. Thanks to my job, I have hundreds of people I consider my children. I have been able to do things that I never would have done if my plans had come to fruition. Do I wish my plans had come to pass? Some of them, yes. I would love to have a wife and children. I would like to have a car that isn’t old enough to drink. I would like to own my own house. I still pray for some of those things daily, but I have come to understand that when God says, “No.” it is for a good reason.

      How do you react when God tells you know? Do you complain and still try to make it happen, or do you accept that God knows better than you what is best for you? As the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.” "No." isn’t the end of the story, it is just the beginning of the next chapter.