Meditation on planning

Not to put too fine a point on it, but sometimes our plans don’t work out the way we want them to. It’s not that things don’t work out well, it’s just that they don’t work out as we want them to.

For example, to increase our visibility as a ministry on campus, we decided to keep putting up a portable labyrinth in the fireplace lounge. Mondays and Tuesdays were selected as appropriate because students have differing schedules. Yesterday, after securing a portable labyrinth that fits the fireplace lounge, it was put down on the floor by late morning, prior to the lunch rush. Directional signs went up. Paraphernalia about labyrinths and UCMHE were all around. Invitations were issued. Hopes were up for a good number of walkers. Nope.

Fewer walked this time than on any other day I can remember. One was an international student struggling mightily with pressure for an outstanding grade to keep a scholarship. This research paper must yield an A. This person wanted to walk and wanted me to lead, and went the exact pace I did. It turns out this person was missing family members, was feeling lonely, isolated, fragmented and useless, and quipped, “I am so afraid (of failing) and I am so alone (no family).” This student had already been to see the writing lab people several times. I offered words of encouragement and prayer.

One walker came as a skeptic, so he walked it backwards with a flair and a smile.

Another student came accompanied by fear of physical illness. “Every year before finals I get something: an injury, a cold, a sinus problem, and now this. And my grandmother died this fall. That’s thrown me for a loop. I’ve got no grandparents left on either side.” More prayer, more encouragement, more practical conversation. This person walked.

Another student brought a friend, and they walked and talked about the experience. This, by the way, is the model that was supposed to go on all day!

Except for me, that was it for walkers that I saw.

However, holy things did happen. I had conversations with students almost non-stop from 11 am to 4 pm. Love lives, student organizations, computers and internet installations, big screen TV evaluations, finals, papers, weekend trips, plans, workweek, more papers, more exams, more, car expenses, calls from jail, work schedule, tattoos, money drain, “confidence in the face of the end of the semester though there’s lots to do and staying up all night isn’t good because my children need someone to get them up and get them to school.” Conversations were held by students sitting around , reading the material about labyrinths and our ministry. Some put the information down. Others put it in their pockets. Hundreds walked by and looked, wondering what this thing was. Others walked by knowingly and smiled. Most walked by in tunnel vision combined with hunger. I learned to sign the words “good” and “bad”.

As it turned out, this ministry of presence took place with the labyrinth being a very large piece of art as a backdrop.

The fact that more people didn’t walk became secondary. The primary point was God’s availability in the here and now. We all figured the labyrinth would work as planned. It didn’t. It worked in a completely new way. It’s not that things don’t work out well, it’s just that they don’t work out expected.

That’s a biblical concept. It happened to God’s followers.

I Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my father." He lay down and fell asleep under a broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water... ... He got up, ate, and drank: then strengthened by that food, he walked forty day and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

It’s a good thing to plan and work the plan. It’s also a good thing to know God is with us anyhow!