Overtaken By Events

Last night, I dreamed my family and I were in a car and driving at night. It felt like an escape attempt. In the dream I didn't know where we were going, only that it was imperative that we go-- that we get away from there. But as we drove through a gap between two rock walls or obstructions, the car suddenly stopped. I felt us being lifted up and moved backwards and to the side, and then we stopped.

It felt just like being in one of those river raft water rides at amusement parks. You know the kind. They are round with six pairs of seats. Everyone faces inward, and EVERYONE gets wet during the ride. At the end of the ride, some rafts proceed to disembark their passengers. But others get picked up by a different conveyor. First they stop, then sometimes move backwards, and then are shifted to the side until they are out of the way. Then they wait. And the passengers? They have to wait too. They are sitting there all wet, perhaps cold and hungry, and nobody gives them a time estimate of how long they will be waiting.

While I was thinking about the dream, the phrase "Overtaken by Events" came to mind. The military even made an acronym for it. OBE. Overtaken by Events. It means you were planning to do something, but it all fell apart because something changed that was out of your control. The old plan has to be trashed and now you have to do something different. Like my family and I in my car, the people in the raft are OBE, and their original plans are no longer viable. Eventually, the raft will start moving, they will exit the raft at the designated location (hopefully).

Sometimes in our real lives, we are Overtaken by Events. I sure was last year. It was definitely not in my plans to get a serious cancer diagnosis and spend roughly two months in the hospital, another month in isolation, and the last nine months in recovery. My plans weren't just on hold, they were OBE. Now I have to make new plans. It's the same with all my cancer buddies in my Facebook group "Mantle Cell Lymphoma: the Journey." All of our plans were canceled when we got our diagnosis. Some of us are starting to plan again, and others are taking things one day at a time because it's all we can do. But we love the comradery and we learn from each other and lean on each other a lot in the process. It's definitely a help.

As believers, some of us have this strange notion that nothing bad is supposed to happen to us. And if it does, then we must be doing something wrong. Perhaps we sinned and God is punishing us? The apostle Paul comments on his own hardships in I Corinthians 4, starting in verse 9. I am quoting from The Message:

It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which non one wants to buy a ticket. We're something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We're the Messiah's misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we're mostly kicked around. Most of the time we don't have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, "God bless you." When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We're treated like garbage, potato peelings from the culture's kitchen. And it's not getting any better.

I'm not writing this as a neighborhood scold just to make you feel rotten. I'm writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and I want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can't wait to tell you what you've done wrong, but there aren't many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up...

Hard times are part of the human experience, and for those of us who are big planners, having our carefully made plans become OBE is a serious emotional hardship! Maybe you are like me. You were involved in something-- something important! But suddenly your progress was arrested, you moved BACKWARDS, and now you are off to the side and waiting for something to happen. (Anything!) You don't know when you will be let out and you don't know when you will start moving again. Ugh.

May God grant you grace for this indefinite waiting. And may He give you new plans at the perfect moment-- right on time.

Sometimes, we are waiting.