Uno Propone Y Dios Dispone

My internet was down yesterday morning when I tried to get on early as I usually do to check my emails and post my daily blog post. It had been working fine the night before, but in this kind of hot weather, sometimes the power goes down or the transformers blow. There’s been so much going on but for some reason I took it in stride. Usually that’s the kind of thing that would really irritate me, but I was able to make the calls I needed to make and find out that there was nothing I could do and then went on my way to work to wait to see when it would be resolved. It was resolved in a few hours, but I couldn’t post until last night, even though I’d written the post the night before. I try to write something at night so I can edit it and post it the next morning, and because I’ve been away and haven’t had a chance to post in the way I usually do, I wanted to get back on schedule. But there’s a saying in Spanish that is actually from Proverbs, “Uno propone y Dios dispone,” and it translates roughly to “A person plans and God puts things in order.” We might make a plan and think our plan is pretty good, but He always knows best and wants the best for us, and when we understand that, we can sometimes find the grace to relax and let things go His way instead of ours.

When I first heard that expression, a woman I know told it to me when we were trying to get something done and everything seemed to be going wrong. She said her mother had always said it, and the way she had learned it was almost with a negative meaning. She had learned it that we could make plans, but that God would change our plans, and in a way, mess them up. What I know about God is that He doesn’t try to mess us up, so I’d always thought that expression must mean something a bit different. I looked it up last year because it was in my mind and my heart to share it with someone I love who had been going through a rough time. When I looked the expression up online, I found a listing for an even more negative expression that includes something about a woman coming along and bringing even more of a mess. I knew that wasn't what the Lord wanted me to share with my friend, and so I looked it up in English in Proverbs, and the verse is from Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” in the King James 2000, “A person plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” from the International Standard Version, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” in the New American Standard Bible, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps,” from the English Standard Version,” “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps,” from the New International Version, and “We can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps,” from the New Living Translation. Even though they were better than the negative Spanish expressions, none of these seemed to my spirit to be what the Lord was really trying to say to me, at least at that time, and what He wanted me to share with my friend. The Holy Spirit said to look it up and translate it, word for word from Spanish to English. I studied Spanish for six years and I knew it really well once upon a time. I can still figure out the sense of sentences, and hear the meaning underneath the translated words when I think about them.

Words are for me very powerful in any language, because of the nuances and layers and levels of meaning, and when I looked up “Uno propone y Dios dispone,” I found something much more like the encouraging word I know comes from the mouth and heart of God. The translation I listed first, the one in the first paragraph, is much closer to what He was trying to tell me and what He wanted my friend to know. The message also becomes clearer in combination with all of the other Biblical translations – if you look at them all, there are different references to plans and the heart and the mind, to humans and men and people. There are words for establishing steps, directing steps and determining steps. If we put it all together, we get something closer to a meaning that when we have something on our heart, God put it there, and when we start to plan, He arranges things and puts things in order so that the plan He has put in our hearts and in our mind can come to pass in the best way possible.

There are times when God will speak a word to us, and will give us a glimpse of what He has planned. He will put something in our hearts and in our minds that we are sure is from Him. But then trouble comes, something happens to make us doubt, we see “reality” around us, and it doesn’t look like the vision He’s given to us. 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us, “We walk by faith, not by sight,” and when I just looked up that scripture, I found another article from the Expository Files website by Shane Scott, http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-2-corinthians-5-7(2).htm, that has a real zinger at the end, “The Bible challenges us to 'walk by faith, not by sight.' This task is as unnatural as walking with our eyes closed. But the more steps we take, the more comfortable this walk will become, and the more confident we will be of the destination of our walk. And ultimately, that’s what faith is all about – it is 'the assurance of things hoped for' (Hebrews 11:1)." Shane Scott also talks about the difference between walking by sight and walking by faith, and it’s a stark difference. When I read his words about walking by faith, it makes me think of a person making their plans and then going ahead no matter what happens, trying to do what they think they need to do in order to make their plans work. I’ve seen this happen, and I’ve been experiencing it recently with someone I know. We can get so caught up in what we think should be happening that we take things into our own hands, sometimes even to the point of trying to manipulate other people or situations or even telling lies to get our own way, that we don’t wait to see what God can do and we don’t let Him do things in His own wonderful way.

Walking by faith is not easy. It’s a place of power only when you understand it deep in your spirit. Without that understanding, it feels foolish and can be very scary, and because it is a place of power, there will always come someone or something to try to knock it and you down. I was having a conversation with a woman I met on the bus to Boston the other day, and she shared with me the idea that there are people who do not understand faith at all, even if they are claiming to be Christians or people of faith. They are still walking by sight, and when they see someone else who walks by faith, they get almost scared because they don’t understand it. They also know that there is a powerful force working through true faith – it’s not simply believing in God – there is a saying we have in church that even the devil believes in God – but faith in what God can do through my life, through your life, through an impossible seeming situation, that kind of faith that believes in the power and the promises of God no matter what it sees, that kind of faith can see mountains move and walls come tumbling down.

If God has made a promise in your life, if He has spoken a word into your heart, believe it, no matter what is happening right now. God doesn’t play games with us, He doesn’t do things that will make us look foolish. When He makes a promise, He keeps it, and He backs it up with His word. Romans 10:11 says it in many different ways in many different translations. Here are just a few: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame,” New International Version, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced,” New Living Translation, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed,” New American Standard Bible, “Everyone who believes in Him will never be ashamed,” International Standard Version. It may look like something completely different, but if God has spoken it, it will happen. All you need to do is trust Him, take a deep breath, and let Him put everything in order. If you can do that, you will never be disappointed, ashamed or disgraced. And the beauty of it is that He will help you to do it. All you need to do is ask for His help. That's His word and you can count on it when there is nothing else that you can count on.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan