If nothing else, life is a journey - albeit for most of us, a journey refusing to stay on course. Plans are made; life happens and we change directions. Sometimes those changes look huge but other times it is the "little things" that set our feet (or our hearts) on another path.
For decades Christopher Columbus planned and sought finances that would launch his dream of traveling to China. He promised King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella he would "bring back gold, spices, and silk from Asia, spread Christianity, and explore China." Oh yes, he also asked to be named admiral of the seas and governor of discovered lands. He never reached China but every student learns of his visit to the Caribbean.
How could Robbie Burns have known that his apology to a mouse for disturbing its nest would have resulted in a poem that's still being quoted 236 years later? In his work "To a Mouse" the esteemed poet put it this way: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley."
Those are famous folk, although I'm not sure that Burns would have deemed his disturbance of a mouse's nest an event that would continue to inspire humanity more than two centuries later. Columbus might have been disappointed at his "failure" to reach his intended destination but his example (for good or bad) lives on.
How do we ensure that life, with all its twists and turns, remains focused on pleasing God? When we have passed on, how can we know that those who think of us will remember that "we walked with God"? Listen to the writer of Proverbs:
"The integrity of the upright will guide themthe righteousness of the blameless will direct his way arighthe who diligently seeks good finds favour." (Proverbs 11:3, 5, 27)
Plans change; integrity doesn't.
