Five Minute Friday: Kate provides a word every Friday. The writer sets a timer for 5 minutes and writes whatever comes to mind.
VISION
The vision for my retirement years looks very different than what I imagined. My husband & I have always been very healthy, rarely even having the flu or a cold. I've heard that you make plans and God laughs. Well, that's exactly what he's doing with our plans.
We thought I'd retire and continue to work through a travel therapy company. We'd travel around the country while both working since he was able to work from anywhere as long as he had a secure internet connection. We'd spend our free time exploring this beautiful country and enjoy traveling while we could.
With my husband's illness, that has changed. People with good intentions tell me about people they know being cured of the same kind of cancer he has. What they don't understand is that my husband won't get any better than he is now. Our vision for our future now involves the maintenance of his cancer for as long as it is possible.
Am I worried? I try not to be. The unknown is quite scary. Padre Pio said, "Pray, hope, and don't worry". Yes, I pray, I hope, and I try not to worry. Matthew 6:34 says: Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
We're learning to take each day as it comes. We're learning to be flexible. Most of all, I'm learning to not become frustrated because God's vision for my future is different than what I thought mine would be.
I think we are in the same boat. I retired then my husband broke his left ankle and right leg, simultaneously. Almost three years and five surgeries later his is getting around again. But that is not how I envision my retirement, I wanted to travel, write books and publish, a mission trip or two, so what now. Time to reassess a vision for my life in the next 15-20 years and truly consider what God's plans are for me. Maybe, as we pray for direction, we go and do and find that road God would have us travel.
ReplyDeleteHi, I forgot to mention, I'm your neighbor on fmf.
DeletePraying for you guys.
ReplyDeleteI have cancer myself, and dig it, that some mean well but say stuff that's kind of a slap.
Sometimes things do not proceed
in quite the way we would prefer,
and some outside feel the need
to use the crisis to infer
that we have been somehow to blame,
that our faith is not so strong
enough to call His holy name,
and we therefore don't belong
upon the hill of victory
where stand the blessed few
who are far above me,
not for what they do,
but for what others perceive
of the boons that they receive.