I was talking to someone recently about my “life’s plan.” After uttering that phrase, my friend simply laughed and said, “You see why that’s funny, right? When has your life ever gone according to plan?”

She’s right. In the past week and a half, what I’m going to study, where I’m going to live and what I am actively pursuing as a career has changed drastically. I have had those elements of my life planned out since 5th grade. It took three days for everything to change. So much for my plans.

Abram and Sarai were faced with the reality that Sarai wasn’t able to conceive. It was a tough reality, but a reality none the less for them. With this in mind, Abram and Sarai made “life plans.” Abram lets God know that “a servant in my household will be my heir.” That’s the plan. Even after God promises children to Abram and Sarai, Abram has a child with his slave Hagar. Sure, Abram and Sarai would have loved to completely trust in God, but they couldn’t. Sarai wasn’t getting any younger. Heirs were needed. Decisions were made. That’s that.

Years go by. Ishmael is 13, Sarai is 90 and Abram is 99. God reminds Abram that the promise God made still stands: Sarai will conceive and they will have a son. Abram responds by rolling on the floor and laughing. Good one, God.

It’s not that Abram and Sarai don’t want to believe God. They just don’t see how their life could pan out any other way. Often times, I have found myself feeling the same way. It’s always nice to think that things are going to work out alright, that God has a better plan than we have. But sometimes, it just doesn’t seem like there is any other way. Our plan is the only option.

When has life ever gone according to plan? Abram and Sarai did have a child. They named their son Isaac, which is Hebrew for “he laughs.” We will make our life plans. We’ll work towards them and laugh at the idea that there is a better alternative. But just remember, God gets the last laugh.

This week’s twin themes of courage and waiting seem like opposites, but they have the same source: trust in God.

In the past two years, I have walked alongside my husband Ken on his journey from good health through a rare heart disease to a heart transplant, with several complications. Last month, he ruptured a disc in his spine while playing racquetball. Now he is dealing with severe pain and a slow process of rebuilding his muscular strength.

Ken has always been physically courageous, but he is not someone who likes to wait. He enjoys motorcycles, model rockets and sports like racquetball that rely on fast-twitch muscle response. But Ken’s health issues have pushed him to new levels of courage and have taught both of us how to wait on God.

The two practices that help us most are Gratitude and Hope. Most days, Ken looks for beauty of some kind to photograph. Each night we name the things we are grateful for. Each morning, we welcome the new day with hope.

When we focus on Gratitude, it builds our trust in God. Trust gives us Hope. It gives us the courage to face difficult or unknown circumstances. It gives us the patience to wait for God’s timing.

God, we are grateful for your love, and the ways you have helped us in the past. Give us courage to face an unknown future. Give us patience to wait for you. Help us to trust you with our whole hearts. AMEN

The life of a Christian isn’t without test or trials, rather our assurance is in knowing that God is in control. However, as Christ himself exemplified in Luke 4:1-13, we too must equip ourselves with God’s Word as a weapon against the devil himself or as a tool for facing any test or trial. I have found this to be true in my own life.

Like Jesus, God’s Word has been the sustaining power while dealing with the illness and death of my mother-in-law. Three years ago, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment and was healed. However, a couple months later, she again became sick and this time the cancer was more severe. During the same week that we were preparing to celebrate my husband’s graduation, we were also at the hospice house watching my mother-in-law lose her life at the young age of 55. To this day, tears fill my eyes and my heart feels the pain of losing her, but I am comforted by God’s Word that Jesus Christ is my comfort and strength, her Healer and our Savior.

While we mourned for her loss, we rejoiced that she is no longer in pain and is resting in peace. God showed us his salvation by coming to this earth in the form of a human named Jesus and overcoming death. I thank God that because of his resurrection power, we have a new heaven to look forward to. A place described in Revelations 21:4 where “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

The Book of Deuteronomy is comprised largely of three sermons of a very old Moses speaking to a new generation of people about to enter the Promised Land. In this text, Moses sounds a bit like a mom or dad driving their family on the journey of a lifetime with tired kids in the back seat complaining, “Are we there yet?” “Not yet, kids,” he responds, “But when we get there, I promise you that half the fun of this trip will be in looking back at the memories we are making right now. We’ll look back at pictures taken in Iowa’s “Field of Dreams.” We’ll laugh at running out of gas in Gallup. We’ll remember the thrill of seeing a bear and her cub in Yellowstone, the shiver of fear on the Grand Canyon Skywalk. We’ll recount sleeping under the stars in Joshua Tree. And you know what, it’s hard to appreciate it right now on this God-awful barren stretch of desert, but it will be worth it, the minute you see the Pacific Ocean. I promise. ‘Then we’ll rejoice in all the good things the Lord our God has given us!’”

And so it is that on this Lenten journey over hills and through the vales of life, on this Lenten journey through trials and tribulations, on this Lenten journey on the barren road to Easter, let us remember in advance, how God heard the complaints of our spiritual ancestors in like moments and delivered them into a land flowing with milk and honey in God’s perfect time. Let us remember and bow.