This past Summer, when my daughter was going through sorority recruitment at Auburn, my wife worked to arrange little gifts for her to open each day as a reminder that she was loved and would find her home in the house that was the right one for her. I didn't have much say in the gifts (not that my wife wouldn't let me, I just let it be her thing) with the exception of one. There was one gift we ran across I knew I had to get for her because it made me laugh. I knew, when my daughter opened the gift, it would make her laugh too. And when she sent a selfie holding it, asking the question... "Danny Green was this you???" I knew she would know it was my reminder of an inside joke about sticky notes from when she was younger... AND... my reminder to be like Bob Ross. No mistakes. Only happy accidents!
I've been talking, of late, with both my adult children about their futures. One is graduating college and preparing for marriage and the other is working to set herself up for success for her Sophomore year of college... and beyond. We've talked applications and interviews... offers they've gotten and ones they didn't... and last week I found myself going back to Bob Ross and his philosophy of happy accidents. Now... I don't think any of our futures are left to random chance or are an "accident", but what I mean is this...
Go confidently in the direction you know you should go while understanding that the path to get there might look different than you imagined. Know what you want the painting to look like, but expect that it might include brush strokes you hadn't originally planned. And know that some of the things you thought your painting would contain... could change over time. Be open to what God has for you even if it doesn't fit into the picture you have in your mind. I tell them this because I know it will be helpful for them, although it isn't always easy to do. I also tell them this because my own life's work has included some elements I never imagined would be there. Ambiguity can be an awful thing for the planners and preparers of this world... people like me who like to map out the rest of their lives. But I've tried to come to view my life like a Bob Ross painting in progress... embracing the changes I didn't expect.
Paintings aren't linear. The don't follow a prescribed method. That's part of what makes an artist's work unique... valuable... one of a kind. It's been helpful for me to learn to embrace the thought of a canvas more than a timeline... knowing that the finished work of art will contain everything it should, it just might not get added to the painting in the order that I would. I would also like to think like Bob Ross in that... "there are no mistakes" philosophy... but I know there actually are mistakes. I make them all the time. Sometimes BIG TIME. And sometimes, these mistakes can change the look of the painting. But I also know the Painter of my canvas knows how to combine the lowest valleys with the highest mountaintops. He knows how to blend the darkened shadows into the shimmering sunlight... adding clouds and trees to the mistakes I might have made when I tried to paint the picture myself. I just have to entrust the brush to Him. (Isaiah 61:3)
Disappointment happens when what we hope to happen... doesn't. This doesn't mean we should have no expectations at all. It just means we should expect that there is One who has different plans for us. Better plans. More beautiful plans that the ones we were envisioning. True fulfillment can only come when we embrace the "happy accidents"... I would rather call them surprises... than mourn the loss of something we expected but was never meant to be. So...
Make your plans while letting Him lead you. Give Him full control of the brush so that He can create the masterpiece He sees in you. And when the road bends 'round a corner you never saw coming... keep letting Him lead, knowing...
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him," - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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