Let It Be

 Maple Hill Cemetery - 05/16/2010

I've been captured by Pete Wilson's new book, Plan B. So much so that I based my teaching on it the last three weeks.

Have you read it? If not, you should. I wrote a review of it on my other blog here.

Life goes awry. Dreams shatter. People fail us. Expectations go unmet. Someone dies.

Sometimes stuff happens because of our own bad choices. Sometimes because others made bad choices. Sometimes a combination of both. And sometimes--just because.

And all we can control then is our response.

We can run.

Away from God. Into sleep or food or busyness or television or overeating or some kind of addiction. Or into the arms of the wrong people.

Or toward God. Fling ourselves straight into His arms.

We can grab the reins.

Try to take control. Make a plan. Manipulate. Try harder. Help God out.

Or we can give up control. Sit in His lap.

And wait.

Yes, wait. And rest. And trust His timing.

We can ride it out.

Hang on tight to the "stuff." Stuff it. Wallow in disappointment. Let bitterness take root and give birth to depression and anger.

Or we can let it go. Confess our failure. Accept the consequences. Forgive. Others. Ourselves. Surrender to God's plan.

We can let it be.

Like Mary. "Let it be done to me according to what you have said." (Luke 1:38 - Amplified)

Not my will but Yours.

Not my plan or my dream or my expectations.

Because everything that comes to us is either by God's hand or is filtered through His fingers. To conform us. To change us into His image.

And when life seems out of control, it really isn't. But God IS. In all. Over all.

Pete says, "When life doesn't turn out the way you thought it was going to turn out, you may think you're losing control. But the truth is, you never had control in the first place." 

He says, "The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of control."

God takes all of our failures, all of our twisted and broken plans and dreams, and weaves them into His beautiful and perfect plan.

I played the Beatles' song, "Let It Be" for my class yesterday. I didn't realize that Paul McCartney wrote that song during a stressful time in his own life. Based on a dream he had that his mother visited him and told him that everything was going to be okay--to "let it be." You see, his mother's name was Mary. She apparently was a nurse, a midwife, and she died suddenly from breast cancer when Paul was only 14.

A Plan B.

He sang the song at his wife Linda's funeral. And again at a 911 benefit. He was in a plane on the runway at JFK that day and watched the towers burn and crumble.

There's hope in the darkness. Hope in the brokenness. Hope when everything in life goes up in flames or comes crashing down.

God's in control.

Let it be.

Are you living a broken dream today? 

How do you respond when things don't go your way?

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry . . ." Psalm 40

Copyright © 2010 by Sandra Heska King

Reflections on 9-11 - Heroes

Gracee slept here last night.  She called me a little before 5 a.m. to investigate a shadow in her room.  She saw "a face."  And yes, her bathrobe crumpled at the foot of her bed indeed cast a face-like shadow on her wall.

Fear is accentuated in shadows.

I couldn't go back to sleep.  So I pulled a book, America's Heroes, from the shelf and immersed myself in the stories and the images of that awful day 8 years ago.

I was on my way to Bible study, rejoicing in God's goodness and looking forward to spending the morning with other ladies digging into the Word.  I heard the report of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center but did not grasp the unfolding tragedy.  As the church staff brought more news, we wept and we prayed.

The shadow of lurking evil smashed into our country in broad daylight and accentuated fear.

The whole world stopped that day.  Familes were changed in an instant.  Our lives will never be the same.

Evil hoped to shatter and break us.  But we bonded together, and fear birthed courage.  Out of the ashes and smoke rose those who gave of themselves and continue to do so for our freedom and for our safety.

America's Heroes tells the stories of those from all walks of life whose lives intersected in a moment--from the cave explorer who knew he could use his skills to crawl through the rubble finding safe paths for search and rescue, to the passengers of Flight 93 who rolled to save the Capitol or White House, to the chaplain who died while praying over a fallen firefighter, to the men who carried a woman in a wheelchair 68 floors to safety, to Roselle the yellow Lab who ushered her blind master and coworkers from the 78th floor into the light without hesitating, to trained and exhausted rescue dogs, to countless police officers and firefighters, to blood donors, to multitudes of others, including a president who kept his composure in front of a room full of elementary children. 

In the Pentagon, Army Lt. Col. Victor Correa "picked himself up from the floor" and ran down the hall."  He screamed, "Listen to me.  Listen to me.  Follow my voice."  And "folks started streaming out."



There is Another who calls through our personal smoke and devastation.  He is the One Who sacrificed everything for us.  If we listen to Him and follow His voice, He will dispel all shadows of fear and lead us into the Light.  He will give us the courage to stand in the face of whatever comes our way.  Our ultimate Hero.


"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with surging."  Psalm 46:1-3

"Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Where were you when you heard? 

Copyright © 2009 by Sandra Heska King