Master Class: Surrender

I’m a planner. I like to do what I want to do when I want to do it the way I want to do it. And when my plans jump the rails, I tend to come undone. I try to get a handle on my emotions and realize that it’s all in God’s hands … or as friends of mine say, “God’s got this.” Sometimes, I’m successful I remember those three words and other times, well …

Two and a half months ago, I planned an ambitious trip to New York. The purpose: to conduct interviews with the subject of my next book a week after her ninety-fifth birthday. I scheduled every waking moment of the trip with meetings, MTA schedules, lodging switches, secondary interviews with my subject’s family, and left precious little time for visits with friends. In short, the trip was strictly business.

Ten days before my trip, my subject (already on edge about making ninety-five trips around the sun) experienced in rapid succession numerous traumatic events in quick succession that left her emotionally and physically exhausted. After canceling the first day and a half’s interviews, I decided it would be best for my subject and her family if I canceled all interviews for this trip and reschedule them later in the year when she would be in a better frame of mind.

Even though I felt good about my decision, free days in New York with no one to hang with made me crazy. I know, everyone should be faced with that problem. Thing is I hate calling people at the last minute and saying, “Hey, I’m in town! Let’s do something.” Not that there’s a shortage of friends I could call, it’s simply bad form in my mind. To me, those two sentences carry a suggestion of “can you drop what you’re doing and come see me?”

I kept calm and clung to the belief that God would bring something wonderful out of my suddenly vacant calendar.

Of all the people I know in New York, I was led to call my new old friend, Tracey Jackson and asked her if she’d like to meet for coffee one morning. She had a sliver of time free, and agreed to meet an hour later.

Both the conversation and coffee were great. We got caught up on each other’s lives and as we were about to head off into the city in different directions she remembered my book Walking Tall and invited me to speak at the Gratitude & Trust Summit: An essential, inspirational, and uplifting day to uncover your most productive, healthiest self on Wednesday, June 24, 2015.

Yup! Yours truly will be giving a talk about facing and embracing challenges.

If you’re going to be in the area and are so inclined, register for the conference and maybe bring a friend! See you there!

The Take-away: sometimes you have to let go of your own plans and open yourself up to the idea that God may have something better, something you could’ve never imagined, in store for you. (Jeremiah 29:11, Commentary)