Like Rain in Florida

It's coming. Something every day is going to interrupt my plans and frustrate me probably. I'm learning that it's better to approach every day knowing an unhappy circumstance is likely just around the corner and waiting to see where Jesus is in it, how I can learn to change because of it. It would be better to see problems like opportunities. Mom told me, and I really think she's so right about this one, that it's our selfishness and need to control that keeps us from living this way. When plans have to change, which will happen, or when things don't go my way, I can choose (with some preparation) to believe there's something different in store that will make Jesus Christ more real and give Him more glory than what I'd arranged.
Basically, I'm just done being surprised that life happens. It doesn't make any sense to expect or hope that everything will be easy and happy today. That false presumption only makes the unexpected more emotional and difficult. Conflict is like rain in Orlando-it's not a question of if, but when, and when today.
For instance, Cameron Townsend could have thrown up his hands when people couldn't read the Spanish Bibles he was selling. He could have just complained to God that his mission trip was a waste. Instead, there God opened the perfect door to something new and unplanned: to provide the Cakchiquel people with a translator and eventually a Bible they could understand, not to mention the huge movement of Bible translation work around the world that flows from Wycliffe and is finally within a generation of completion!
Last summer in Guatemala, Arvid Westfall (an incredibly humble, sweet, brilliant, hilarious man who translated the K'anjob'al New Testament and guided my trip) said over and over again as he gave our schedules to us daily, "Here are the plans we will deviate from." Many times he's seen God take control and use what look like the wrong circumstances to do wonderful, earth-shaking things. And he trusts God enough to switch plans and be patient with people and do things that don't make sense. I want to learn to live with that kind of rest in God. I hope it doesn't, but I suspect it will take me years.