October 2, 2026
Have you ever felt like God was trying to tell you something by putting the same things in front of you over and over again?
Well, these past few weeks I have felt like everything I have heard, read, or seen has been about plans. It has made me stop and think about what are “my” plans and what is God’s plan.
I saw this quote: “Sometimes what didn’t work out for you (my plans) really worked out for you (God’s plan)." I feel like there are so many times I do not see the hand of God and His plan in my life until I am through the storm, worry, or confusion of decisions that are made in my life.
One of the most heartbreaking times in my life was when we realized we would have to put our daughter with autism in residential care. I can guarantee you we tried everything in our power and went through more things than you could imagine to just try and be able to keep her at home but it just wasn’t safe, for her or for the rest of the family. Through several doctors, a place in Atlanta called Hillside was recommended.
As you can imagine they were backed up and getting an appointment proved to be a very long wait when time was of the essence for us. Our church had just hired a new associate pastor. His wife was asking me questions about our daughter one day and I told her about Hillside and the trouble we were having trying to get an appointment. She informed me she worked for the CEO of a major Atlanta corporation and it just so happened her boss was on the Board of Directors at, you guessed it, Hillside.
She was able to talk to him about our daughter and within a week we were moving her to Hillside. It was one of the most heartbreaking storms that I have ever walked through in my life but looking back I see so vividly how God had a plan.
There was another time in our marriage when Wayne lost his job. We still had three children living at home and Wayne was our main provider of income and only provider of insurance. The fear set in and very quickly. What would we do? How would we live? Etc. etc. To this day I do not know how in the world our money stretched to cover all our expenses, but it did.
I also can go back and look in my Bible where I wrote all the ways God took care of us, from Kroger gift cards to utility bills being paid and everything in between. It was a very scary time but when I read those entries in the front of my Bible I see so and understand how God had a plan.
There was also a time when Wayne had a very serious injury. We were on our way back from vacation and he started saying his hands were going numb. He decided it was the long drive and really didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. Over the next several weeks he started losing his balance quite often and his hands were still tingling and numb. He went to several doctors and they kept saying that he had a pinched nerve and it would just take time.
A few weeks later he still had all the symptoms plus he was having trouble walking. He even took a very hard fall from losing his balance off the back of a truck. Again the doctors thought he had a bad case of sciatica which can cause some of these issues. We were all so confused because instead of getting better he was getting worse day by day to the point he could barely get around and was in constant pain. We just wanted some answers.
Finally we decided to make an appointment with a neurologist. He immediately ordered some specialized tests on Wayne and within two days Wayne was in surgery due to discs in his back that had ruptured and were pressing into his spinal cord in a very dangerous way. As soon as he was out of surgery and able to get up he was walking so much better and the pain was almost non-existent.
The doctor later told Wayne he was so lucky that the fall he had taken did not sever his spinal cord, it was that serious. We knew it wasn’t luck but the protection of God. Even though this was an extremely frustrating and confusing time in our life, we can look back and see not only the protection of God but that God had a plan.
I could go on and on and give you situation after situation where looking back I see God’s plan, and it is definitely better than my plan. I heard a song on the way to work this week called “Plans.”
The chorus says:
You got plans for me
Greater than my wildest dreams
Stronger than the enemy
You got plans for me
Even in my worst defeat
Will you give me faith to see
You got plans for me
I think we all can say we have gone through trying times in our life and not seen the “plan” or “hand” of God until we look back. Right now my life can seem chaotic and out of control at times and there are so many things to “figure out.”
I am going to make a point to try and look back and remember all the ways God has been faithful to allow me to keep walking forward, trusting that He knows the plan. How about you?
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Jill Johnson, a staff member at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, finds spiritual applications in her everyday experiences as a wife, mother, grandmother and Georgian. Reach her at jjohnson@gabaptist.org.
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