I love to travel, but never in my life have I imagined booking an international trip 1.5 days before departure. Yet, it happened.

A Drastic Change of Plans

At the start of May, my husband, John, and I had our plans set for the month. Or so we thought.

The first weekend of May, I planned to drive from Knoxville to Nashville and meet up with my sisters who were visiting from Michigan. Then, I’d get home Sunday and John and I would drive down to Florida on Tuesday, to stay at our short-term rental property for a week and a half.

That was the plan.

But Friday night — the night before Nashville — we got the news. John’s 94-year-old grandma was declining fast in the hospital. In ENGLAND. (John’s dad was born in the UK and that side of his family still lives there.)

There we sat. Eating dinner. Faced with a decision. Scrap our plans and fly to England so John could (hopefully) see his grandma one last time? Or stick to the plans we already made because there was no guarantee she would live even a few days longer?

Give Your Plans to God

What I didn’t tell you yet is that the entire week leading up to that fateful Friday, I felt an extra strong urge to give our plans to God. Not that don’t I normally do this, but this time felt different somehow. During our nightly dinner prayers, I added, “God, we give you our plans for the coming week.”

But back to Friday night. After praying and weighing our options for flights, we found an option from Atlanta to Birmingham, UK that left Sunday afternoon. A day and a half later. While the flight was not cheap, it also wasn’t outrageously expensive — a rarity for last-minute flights! — and Birmingham was much closer to the hospital than London.

So, we booked the flight. We booked an Airbnb. I texted my sisters to let them know I couldn’t meet up with them in Nashville. We went to bed that night with no idea how the next several days would play out, yet knowing God was in control. And the next day, we packed our suitcases for England instead of Florida.

What Does the Bible Say About Making Plans?

Have you ever questioned why or how you should make your own plans if God already has one for you?

Have you ever thought, “What’s the point?!” or worried you might make the wrong plan?

I have.

My senior year of high school, I was terrified of choosing the wrong college. So terrified, in fact, that I waited till the very last minute to commit to a school. I just wasn’t sure where God wanted me to go, and that paralyzed me.

Gosh, I wish I’d known then what I know now — that But God doesn’t want us to be afraid of taking a step forward when we face the unknown. He also doesn’t tell us NOT to plan.

Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) makes that very clear. “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

When we do plan, all God asks is that we hold it loosely and trust Him with the outcome. All plans should be made with this caveat: the Lord willing.

God’s own Word tells us this in James 4:13-15 (NLT):

¹³ Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” ¹⁴ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. ¹⁵ What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 

Learning to make plans — even prayerful ones — and then let them go is one of those ongoing lessons and tests of faith. At least, it is for me.

God’s Redirection… to England

As a natural-born planner who typically thrives on knowing the plan for each day, I have to say that spending six days in Market Harborough, UK — with no idea what to expect each day — was surprisingly freeing.

During all my years of solo travel, I always had a plan. A detailed itinerary. This was not that type of trip.

Instead, it was very go-with-the-flow. One day at a time. Sometimes, one hour at a time.

We walked to the hospital each day to visit with John’s grandma and other family members. We walked into town at least once a day — often twice — for meals and shopping and exploring.

One day, John’s dad even drove us around the countryside to the nearby Cotswolds, where we spent an hour or so at Diddly Squat Farm.

If you’re not familiar with Diddly Squat, it’s a farm owned by Jeremy Clarkson, who became well known after years on the British show Top Gear. His new-ish show, Clarkson’s Farm, has several seasons on Amazon, which John and I have watched.

In fact, the week before this trip, we finished season 3 with no idea that we’d be within driving distance of the farm just a few days later. Wild, right?

But the trip wasn’t about that. Visiting the farm was purely a bonus.

The real value and purpose of God diverting our plans was to be with family. Create memories. Other than John’s dad, I hadn’t met the rest of John’s British family before the trip. It was joy to meet his uncles, aunt, and several cousins! Plus, John hadn’t been to England in over 20 years, so this reunion, for them, was long overdue.

And God knew.

I wholeheartedly believe that His plans for us that week were better than our own. Sure, we could have stayed in the US and followed through with our original plans. And maybe that would have been okay, too.

I just can’t shake the fact that the Holy Spirit so adamantly prompted my heart to give God our plans. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be in Nashville. Maybe we weren’t supposed to be in Florida. Or maybe, God just really wanted us to be with John’s family in the UK.

Regardless, I believe we were where we needed to be.

And John’s grandma pulled through. She is one tough woman, still living life with spunk and zeal as I type this post.

Let God Direct Your Steps

If you struggle with control or letting go of plans, like I sometimes do, the whole “God controlling your steps” thing can seem a bit scary or unpleasant or even annoying. Right?

But the truth is, God isn’t the fun police. He doesn’t want to ruin your day or lead you down a path that makes you dread waking up in the morning. NO. That’s not who God is.

And I know this to be true because I’ve seen His faithfulness time and time again.

So, when He asks me to let Him direct my steps, I know I can trust that He has my best in mind. And that doesn’t always mean my plans will need to change. Sometimes God’s plans and my plans look pretty similar and sometimes they don’t. The key is giving God control to lead the way, either way.

It may not always make sense — and you may even find yourself in another country two days later — but God’s way always leads to peace.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16, NLT)