Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phyrgia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia to help us.” Acts 16:6-9 (NIV)

There we were in a ministers training session, when one of the ordination candidates was nearly broken down in tears when she attempted to explain that the meeting schedule was interfering with her seminary and life schedule. Had she known the meetings would coincide like this, she would not have taken the seminary classes. The response from one of the instructors, though it was meant to be an encouragement, came off in a harsh and cold tone as he explained he had to go through the same process as her, adding the name of a prestigious seminary. The truth was, all of us, as instructors knew the struggle because we had lived it, but it in the moment, the comment was adding salt to her wounds. I spoke with her later one on one, trying to encourage her by giving her some time management skills advice. However, even with the best of time management, when God decides to do a schedule change, there is not a whole lot we can do, except go with the flow.

As an example of this point, this particular article idea has been sitting in my brain queue for a few weeks. My plan has been and continues to be that I am posting here more regularly than I have in the past few years. But God made a schedule change, that meant devoting my time to another creative project to support the work of a prayer room. Perhaps I could have opted out of the other project so that I could meet my scheduling priorities, but somehow I knew that the other project was God-sent. I am glad that I went with the flow because I did that work in record time and the end result was pleasing to my eyes and to the organizers of the prayer room. What could have been viewed as a schedule disruption turned into a blessing and a lesson I am still sorting through.

The text above is another example of God’s schedule changing prerogatives. The ministry of spreading the Gospel was going well. Paul had picked up his protégé, Timothy, for the second missionary journey and was attempting to revisit some of the areas in which he had already established churches. The problem was every time Paul was trying to literally go right on his road map, God kept blocking his paths until one night when he sent Paul into Macedonia, literally a left turn on his road map. The journey was productive but it also had a lot of hardships. Ultimately, the Gospel was spread farther west than even Paul had imagined it could be. The full extent of the impact of that left turn may not have occurred to Paul until his return home and he had a chance to analyze it, but he had to know that going with the flow produced more than fighting the schedule change.

I am just now settling back down from my schedule change and I am still analyzing the disruption. I am sure that the lessons learned and the connections made are far greater than if I had fought the process and stuck to my guns just to meet a self-imposed deadline or goal. What I tried to impart to the ministry candidate was that we have to have a plan to keep track of the many things we have to accomplish as ministers, but we also have to be flexible for the move of the Holy Spirit. God’s schedule changes always have a purpose, whether it is to bless someone else or to teach us a lesson or both, our best bet is always to follow God’s plan above our own.