Thursday, April 19, 2012

When God Has Another Plan - When Lyrics Speak

Sometimes it doesn't take long for a song to strike a chord within you. I remember hearing "When God Has Another Plan" for the first time in my car after just buying the Greenes' Far Down the Road and crying the first time I heard it. It's such a powerful song that can fit a variety of circumstances for many people.

I am a planner. I want to know exactly what's going to happen and when. If I could, I would have the next 10 years of my life mapped out before me. But that's not how God works.

I've been participating in a Bible study on James and was reminded just this week about how we can't plan out our lives with these verses:

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.' You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'" - James 4:13-15

God's plan is so often very different from my own. I can look back on certain things and be very thankful that His plan is different. However, there are situations now that I certainly don't understand, but God does.

One of the things I love about this song is that it's one everyone can relate to. Whether your dealing with the death of a loved one, a situation at work or a health issue, we can all understand that God's plan is different from ours.

"When God has another plan, walk on and just say yes
When God has another plan, be assured that He knows best
When all your dreams are shattered, rest in His sufficient grace
We don't have to understand, when God has another plan."

We don't have to understand, we just have to accept that He knows best. He can see what's going to happen next when we can't. So many times I do wonder why God works the way He does, but I have to remember that His ways our higher than our ways. 

The lyrics of this song really rang true when Tony Greene passed away. I can recall hearing the song after this death and my heart breaking for TaRanda as I listened closely to the lyrics of the second verse:

"Alone and broken hearted, questions fill your mind
Changes can be hard that come by God's design
But if you could see tomorrow with a view from Heaven's throne
Every unexpected struggle has led you closer home."

The Greenes always sang this song with such conviction, and you knew they felt every word of what they were singing about. The song especially fit after Tony's death. We all thought God's plan would be his healing, but He had another plan. I included the clip above of TaRanda singing it after his death, and you can see the raw emotion of the song.

This is one of my favorite gospel songs of all time. I think that as believers we all have situations where we don't understand and can't see how God is working. However, we can be reminded that God has another plan and He does know best. Just walk on and say yes, resting in His sufficient grace.

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