You're fired. . . wait. . . WHO'S fired!??

Man, I love "The Apprentice." Trump's catchphrases, the nutty black chick who's just. . . um. . . nutty, Carolyn's reactions to everything said in the boardroom. But I especially love it for surprises like tonight's when "The Braford" gave up his immunity as a "show of support for his team" (another name for trying to suck up to Trump and show off his pride) and it cost him continuation of the game. What a stupid decision, as The Donald told The Bradford (now aka The Unemployed) over and over again. Great show :)

Brad thought his plan was a good one. After all, be willing to take one for the team when he really was doing pretty well would have curryed some favor with them and The Donald, in his mind. But his plan backfired and The Donald uttered those magic words, "you're fired" to him and sent him packing. . . something he neglected to do before going to the boardroom in the first place.

Isn't that how life goes? We make our plans, confident that they will be pulled off and foolproof and lead to our success. And we are so sure of the future that we hinge everything on our plans and schemes. And then the rug gets pulled out from us and we find our plans shattered and our dreams thrown to the wind. If I had gone by the plans I had for myself I would be married with kids by now, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, living in a nice house in Chicago. But, as everyone knows, that didn't happen.

We are legitimately surprised by the changes and about-faces that can occur in life and I think that's to be expected. But one thing I noticed I tend to do is get mad at God and think He's not playing fair, not following the rules. . . .as if God could break the rules. . . He MADE the rules!! But we wonder why God is taking what we consider to be cheap shots. But it's not like we weren't warned.

Coincidentally with Bradford's foolishness, tonight I also studied Proverbs 16 (which also contains some verses about pride going before a fall, but that's another story). But at three different points in the chapter, verses popped out and struck my heart like bullets.

"The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Proverbs 16:1

"A Man's heart plans his way, But the Lord directs His steps." Proverbs 16:9

"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord." Proverbs 16:33

The illusion of control. We're told we live in a world where we can accomplish anything we set our mind to. That we can take control of our destiny. But that's not the truth. Our schemes are just that. . . schemes. They may or may not come true. We can find ourselves living life just like we thought we would or finding different detours around the way into a future we never even considered. One's not better than the other. It's simply the route that God wants us to take.

We can get mad about that. What if I want to get married and God doesn't have that in store? What if I'm stuck at the same job forever? What if I never make more money than I make right now? If I get mad about that, what does it say about the things I value? If I'm supposed to prize God about all and be living for His glory, what does it say about my faith if I get mad that the path to glorifying God doesn't involve making Chris rich, famous, and . . . um. . . un-single?

The other things in life--job, relationships, money, things--are all nice things. But they're not the main things in life. They're the icing on the cake that we may or may not get. It's not our place to get upset over the path that God has planned for us. Because if we are really prizing Him above anything and our ultimate destination is His glory, then why should it matter to us the route we take?

So what do we do? Thankfully, Proverbs 16 didn't leave me hanging. It gave me an answer right there:

"Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established." Proverbs 16:3

C-Dubbs