In today’s society, we learn from a young age to plan out
many aspects of our lives. Whether it be planning our meals for the week,
planning our class schedule to graduate on time, pinteresting our dream wedding,
planning the age we get married and have kids, and so on. We get so invested on
our life following our plan, that we often miss opportunities or lose sight of
who we are. I know I am guilty of both. During the fall of my senior year of
high school I had decided to continue my athletic career in tennis at Washburn
University, thus ending my track career upon graduation. My spring collegiate
tennis season started off decent, but as the season progressed my confidence
and performance started to decrease. The end of the school year and season were
approaching, and my plan was to finish my finals and have my exit meeting with
coach on Tuesday, leave for camp on Thursday, and continue playing tennis for
Washburn until I graduated. My plan however, was shattered when I went to my
exit meeting, and found out I was being cut from the tennis team. This piece of
information turned my world completely upside down. I had no other plan, and I
was leaving for summer camp in less than forty-eight hours. That’s when I
received an email from the head track and field coach at Washburn, asking if I
could meet with him. Less than twenty-four hours after being cut from the
tennis team I am sitting in his office talking track, and the next thing I know
I am signing to run track at Washburn. This was not my plan, track was supposed
to be over not tennis.
I was so caught up in my plan of continuing my tennis
career, that I didn’t see it was starting to break me down emotionally and
mentally. I thought my plan was flawless, but God had other plans for me. He
saw I was in a place that caused great frustration and worthlessness,
therefore, he removed me from that place and in return took me to a place where
I could stop long enough to be still and hear His voice. He took away something
that I could never imagine losing but replaced it with something better. I can
tell you at the time, I didn’t think getting a track scholarship was “better.”
Getting cut from the team made me lose all confidence in myself. I felt like I
had failed my coaches back home and parents who spent many hours, money and
effort to make my dreams come true of playing tennis collegiately. For the
first time in my life I felt like I was giving up on my dream of playing tennis
without even trying or looking at playing at another school. I saw myself as a
failure who gave up when things got hard, a quitter, a worthless athlete who
was throwing away her talent. Overall getting a track scholarship felt like I
was settling for something rather than receiving a new opportunity from God.
Now, starting my third year of track, I know I didn’t settle, I am not a
worthless athlete, and replacing my tennis scholarship for a track scholarship
changed my life.
Instead of trying to plan every detail let’s try to be more
flexible with our plans. When your world is turned upside down, try to accept
the change with an open heart. See where this change takes your life. It may
not make any sense at the time or even months after but take heart and be
patient. You will have plans and dreams that you wholeheartedly aspire to achieve,
but God’s plan and purpose will prevail (Proverbs 19:21). He may be wrecking
your plans because He sees they are wrecking you even when you can’t see they
are wrecking you. His plan allowed me and can allow you to have the eyes to see
His Plan is even better than you could have imagined (John 13:7). The process
of changing your perspective and accepting His Plan will take time, it has taken
me a great deal of time and it hasn’t been easy. It’s been filled with many
highs and lows, step forwards and steps back, but I have come to accept that no
matter what I plan it cannot be near as great as what He has planned for me
(Jeremiah 29:11). When my tennis plans
were wrecked, I was devastated, and you may feel the same way and that’s okay.
At first, we won’t understand why this is happening, but as time goes on we
will learn to acknowledge that there is a lot of different paths to travel on.
We must trust that His plan is best, and He will direct us on which path is
ours (Proverbs 3:5-6). While my journey happens to take place in an athletic
setting, God can use any setting to change your plans. When this happens, seek
Him and pray to Him.
Lord, we thank you for this new
opportunity. Please help us to accept this change with an open heart, patience
during the healing process, and guidance on continuing to follow Your
magnificent plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment