Having Enough Faith to Let Go

When we decide to let go and let God take the wheel, we better be prepared for excitement.

I am a planner by nature. I like to know what’s coming and have a bit of a handle on the future, but I suppose like everyone else, the last couple of years has changed that. Masks, lockdowns and constantly changing medical advice made me keenly aware that I could plan all that I wanted, but in the end, I had very little control over just about anything.

I spent my 50th birthday eating take-out with my family, but thankful that we were all well and together. It wasn’t what I would have planned, but one I will treasure all the same.

This past weekend, I celebrated my 52nd trip around the sun. My hubby and I decided to take a trip to Chattanooga and meet up with my daughter who recently moved to Nashville. To add to the fun, we decided to take our two dogs. We have never traveled with them before, but our daughter was really missing her dog.

I let her handle the details and at the last minute, our son was able to join us and what was originally a day trip with a hike, turned into an overnight trip with the two dogs and our two grown kids.

I didn’t plan the first detail; something pre-pandemic me would have never been okay with.

When the trail that we were going to hike was closed and we hadn’t had lunch yet, we ended up getting Chick-fil-A and eating it in the car and I couldn’t have been happier.

We took a family vote and ended up at Rock City, a touristy place with special family memories and we had a ball. It had been ten years since we visited. Our kids had been in elementary and middle school. We had just as much fun with grown up kids as we did back then and unbelievably, our completely unpredictable pups, behaved beautifully.

When we went to dinner at a place with a dog friendly deck, it wasn’t what I would have picked, but the food was delicious, and our pups behaved, although I felt like we had toddlers again.

When we returned to the car and tried to figure out where to go next, we saw the first round of fireworks explode into the air over the river. At first, we all grabbed our phones to try to find out what was going on, but I eventually rolled down my window and enjoyed a fabulous, 4th of July quality fireworks show.

As I later reflected on the many blessings of our trip, I was struck at how the best parts were completely unplanned. They were products of being open to something different that may have been better than what I could have possibly planned myself. It was a beautiful reminder of God’s plan for us. 

His plan is always infinitely better than we could ever plan for ourselves, even when it doesn’t seem that way. All I have to do is have some faith. Jesus said, the size of a mustard seed will do. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂