Paul's Storm

Have you ever had a plan in place, you converse with the Lord if this is the right direction, and you receive a "Yes," then you assume the direction from there? Brad and I made a plan last year. Get into CDL class, complete it, find a local trucking job, and be stable. He is over halfway done in school and part of our plan is starting to fall apart. It reminds me of Paul on his way to Rome, because he "appealed unto Caesar" (Acts 26:32). He (Paul) admonished them from sailing from "The fair havens" (Acts 27:8) because of the season, but they ignored him. Soon afterwards "a tempestuous wind called Euroclydon" (Acts 27:14) came up. Brad was stressing so much in a dark depression and I felt like I was losing my husband to this storm now taking over our lives while we're trying to pack and preparing to move. What do we do? Brad opened up to me about his struggle with school, the stress and his thinking about quitting school. I was stunned but he had been trying to get his feelings across to me for weeks. I'm praying "What do I say? What do I do?" "This has to be his decision" I hear. "Okay take a couple of days to think this through before you decide" I say. I'm laying in bed thinking "what can I do to help? I can pray and fa..." I didn't put the word fast in my head. The Lord is trying to tell me something. "Let's fast tomorrow 2 meals and see what the Lord says." Now we're working together to find the answer. Fasts are hard for my, they always have been, but I was willing to do it. I got up late Friday so I suggested we do it Saturday March 14. I'm in the shower singing Gospel music. I stop and I get lost in my head. The Lord took our offering to fast and accepted it. He gave me a solution. Our day is coming, like with Paul, the soldier and crew. Why not finish school, but if he doesn't make it we let it go and say "Okay this isn't for you, let's look at other jobs and find something you're happy with and good at." No stress, no life or death keep to the plan and we move forward. The sun came out in our lives and my husband sang in the shower! (It's been a long time since he's done that.) He's lighter and happier than I've seen him in a long time. Life's plans, especially our own, aren't life or death you have to do it this way and life becomes so stormy and unbearable to live. When life becomes like that, we need to pause and counsel with the Lord to see if we have our plan and will aligned with His and what we need to do to align it with His. Is the storm we're in of our own making? How can we bring the sun out? Life can be hard but the Lord doesn't want it to be unbearable like what we were going through. So, truck driving isn't his career path. Let's look at what is. I'm grateful for this "day" on the bay of an unknown island because we all survived even if our plan didn't. There are other plans and we know the Lord knows the end from the beginning, and we learned something out of this experience. Don't let the storms of our own making take lives as well as the ship. Ships can be redone, rebuilt but people and relationships aren't worth sacrificing for a plan. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.