31 Days: Where Life Takes You

I knew the moment I had blown the job interview.

Things had been going so well up until that point, too. The interviewers were smiling and nodding their heads in all the right places. I remember thinking (quite cockily, I might add) "You've nailed it!"

And then someone asked the question that was my undoing.

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

I froze.

Five years!? Who can project that far into the future? Who could have predicted that I would live in four states in an eight year period? Who could have predicted that I would suffer from a chronic auto-immune disorder for five years? Who could predict what would happen just one month later?

When I finally collected my thoughts, I think I mumbled something about hoping that I wouldn't be paying for anyone's college tuition in five years. It was a lame answer, but probably the thing that was foremost on my mind at the time.

It wasn't the answer they were looking for. They were no longer smiling and nodding. Now, they were writing words on their pads of paper and frowning ever so slightly.

Epic fail.

That interview took place this past January. One month later, my husband came home from work with the news. He had spoken to his boss that day, and he had offered my husband a job two states away.

Day one of our home relocation had just begun.

I remember thinking "Ah ha! That is why God did not want me to have that job! He had something else completely different in store for us, something I could not have predicted!"

Now don't get me wrong. It is wonderful to have plans and to set goals. But ultimately, life is unpredictable. God is in control, and He may have plans for you that are beyond your ability to fathom.

I wish I could go back and tell my January self how different life would become in October. As she trudged back to her car thinking "Well, I blew that one!", I would give her a hug and tell her this:

"Honey, you are not going to believe the things God will do for you in just a few months time! Your auto-immune disorder will go into remission, and your health will be restored. You will see one son graduate from college, and you will move your entire family and all of your worldly goods to a new home in a new city that you will come to love. And one night, you are going to stand on top of a mountain and look down upon that glistening city and think 'I am blessed beyond my wildest imagination!' "

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." Psalm 40:5