A Planner’s Guide to the Pandemic

I love to plan ahead. I’m sure my fellow homeschoolers laugh at me when I’m deciding on the next year’s curriculum choices in February. I get all jazzed when it’s finally time to plan our classes for our homeschool co op. I love planning family trips, household projects, meals, grocery lists, all of it. I have my own planner that I make (a bullet journal, in case you’re curious - traveler’s notebook style) that helps me plan more effectively. Especially in the early spring when the weather in the Midwest still isn’t great, it energizes me to plan for the future.

Enter global pandemic.

This spring, all my plans are like pieces of paper thrown willy nilly into the air and blown hither by the ceiling fan. Gone. Canceled or otherwise completely up in the air as to when and if they will happen. And if they do happen, they will likely look quite different to what I had thought.

Soccer practice? Family vacation? Co op planning meeting? Fun summer events? I CAN’T PLAN ANYTHING!! I know it’s just a minor inconvenience compared to what some are going through, but it’s still hard!

I believe that God is still very much in control and that He has things that He would like me to learn during this bizarre time. I have been reminding myself (and my loves-to-plan teenage daughter) that this is an excellent time to practice living in the moment.

I would personally much more enjoy living in the future. You don’t like how this school year is going? Just plan next year! Your life feels boring right now? Plan a summer vacation! Plans are really much easier and more fun than living in the moment. Especially this moment of being stuck at home!

But the now is where God wants us to live.

It’s not wrong to plan. We need planner-people. BUT, we planners need to avoid retreating into the future as an escape from the now that may not be as exciting or as pleasant. I am TOTALLY guilty of this!

I recently heard Jeremy Camp’s new song, “Keep Me in the Moment” and it definitely speaks to this.

Singing oh Lord, keep me in the moment

Help me live with my eyes wide open

'Cause I don't wanna miss what you have for me

I need to be here in this moment. 

Stuck at home. Unsure of when normal life will resume. Desperately hoping that it will return to normal, but not quite trusting that it will. Grieving the loss of fun activities, simply going out to dinner, running to the hobby store or the book store, or going to a baseball game. Wondering when the politicians will stop fighting and decide to work together in a way that’s reasonable and helpful. 

Yeah, this moment. This messy, sometimes scary moment.

God wants me to give Him this moment and trust Him with it. Walk with Him in it. And the next moment and the moment after that. 

His Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105) He doesn’t give me a searchlight to illuminate the next 10 years. Just the next steps on the path. 

So as much as I would love to plan ahead right now, I just can’t. Instead, I’ll try to be in the here and now, messy as it is. I will try to give my full attention and presence to walking with Jesus in this moment.