I love the 80s. I used to watch the A-Team face a seemingly impossible situation, then everything worked out at the end. I always loved to see “the plan” come together.
The challenges in my life aren’t quite as straightforward as B.A. and Mad Dog faced. Many times my problems don’t come from “bad guys”, they come from inside me.
I am prone to believe that nobody cares about me. It’s not true, but knowledge alone doesn’t break its hold over me. Events become twisted in my mind and from my perspective, people don’t reach out to me because they don’t think I am worth the effort.
The reality is that I have great friends and family. I love them dearly and they feel the same way.
But there are times when I feel like I am always the one who has to reach out, always the one who has to initiate contact. I wish people cared about me enough to set aside their busy lives and come find me. My faith in God remains unshaken, but I feel alone and disconnected from the world.
When I pray for help, God strengthens me and I start the e-mails, text messages, and phone calls. Digital connection isn’t enough, though. Face-to-face time is the remedy.
During one of these episodes, I texted Bob to see if he was available to hang out over the upcoming weekend. He is one of my best friends and for whatever the reason, we hadn’t shared any time in the past three months.
Bob came to my house this past Saturday morning. It was beautiful outside, so we sat on lawn chairs chatting while we enjoyed coffee and bacon like we have many other times. This time, he brought experimental, air-fried bacon. I give it five stars.
I had something in particular I wanted to talk to him about. Bob’s house is next to a sober-living home. It is a regular-looking house that I only knew served in this capacity because he told me. It provides a safe environment to about a dozen men who are recovering from addiction.
A friend from my men’s group has a son who just graduated from a remarkable, faith-based rehabilitation program after thirteen months. Although I have not met his son, I heard that he had gotten a job and would be transitioning into a sober-living home. As God would have it, this particular home was the one next door to Bob’s, so I wanted to share the connection with him.
After our initial conversation catching up with each other, I brought him up to speed on my friend (who he had not met) and his son, Evan. I told Bob that Evan would become his new neighbor within the week and since Evan was looking to surround himself with godly people, that I hoped they could meet.
Bob said that would be great. He said that Evan was one of the “special ones” and he would be glad to see him again.
I told Bob that Evan wasn’t living there yet so he wouldn’t have met him before.
“Oh, no”, Bob said. “Remember two Christmases ago when I told you the story about the guy who helped me hang Christmas lights?”
I told him that I remembered.
“That was Evan. His mom came by as we were finishing up and I met her, too.”
I told Bob that it was very unlikely that we were talking about the same person. Evan is a common name, after all. Then Bob pulled out his iPhone and opened a picture.
“Is this him?”
Of course, it was him. I should have never doubted. Bob doesn’t believe in coincidence. Everything is by design. He’s right about a lot more things than just bacon.
I was happy as we finished our conversation. I was uplifted by time with a good friend but had received a revelation even more important to me.
Everybody in my morning’s story was interconnected with God and each other in ways we weren’t aware of. When I prayed for connection, God showed me that my life was overflowing with connections that I wasn’t even aware of.
A world full of such intricate, intimate connections requires a lot of planning. The planning wasn’t focused on the accomplishment of a task, though. It was focused on people.
We are God’s plan, and his plan is coming together.
Ever since God created Eve to fulfill something missing in Adam’s life (Genesis 2:20), he has been growing our number, trying to join us in spirit and in love. He is at the center, but we are connected around him in a giant, interwoven network. We need him, but we aren’t fully complete without each other.
He has been planning community.
So when I am sad, he gives me neighbors. That strengthens my connection with Him, but also binds my heart to his other children like a family ought to be. What a great plan.
To all of my friends that I haven’t connected with recently, I am sorry. I am trying to find ways to value you more than the busyness of my day. You are more important to me than any of the chores on my list, but I forget that sometimes. You are more precious to me than the extra hours that I work, but I forget that, too.
You are God’s plan for my life. If you become impatient waiting for me to reach out, please call me. I’ll drop whatever. You are worth it.
