You Almost Missed the Greatness

“You had it all planned out
The travel
The job
The life
But then life got in the way
And you almost missed
The greatness
Because
You were so focused
On the plan
Your plan
Don’t be blinded by living
Your plan
And miss the greatness
In your life
Right now”

This poem is so true for me. I wanted to be a dance major. I wanted to serve a mission for my church. Then I was going to do some study abroad programs back-to-back. Then a summer volunteer program at my church. I wanted to wait to get married and not start having kids until I was about 30 years old.

I auditioned and didn’t make it into the dance major program. I was crushed. I started to go through the process to get ready to go on a church mission. During that process I found out I had several autoimmune diseases that would make my life difficult.

I had no choice but to dropout of college and fly home to have surgery. Even after surgery, I still was not able to go on a mission because of the the difficulties the diseases would cause. I was told I might not ever be able to have children.

I was so focused on trying to get my plan back on track. But I met an amazing guy. Before you go “Oh great, so typical.” Know that I understand how it sounds annoyingly like a fairy tale. Just hear me out.

So I met him and I got married way earlier than I had planned. And I was able to get pregnant, carry, and have our wonderful daughter. The doctors have told me that it is probably best if I am done having kids by the time I am 30 years old.

Now I have new plans. I still love to dance. I still have plans to travel. Even if I don’t go on a formal church mission or volunteer program, I can still use my voice to share His light. I went back to school and graduated college. I still have been able to do a lot of the things on my list. But now I have new goals for what I want to accomplish.

If I had been so focused on my original plan, I may have missed out on meeting the man I was supposed to marry. Now I have a partner and best friend to help me along the way as I chase my dreams. I also may have missed out on raising a wonderful daughter. I may have missed out on friends I have made and things I have accomplished on this new path. It scares me to think I could have missed out on all of this.

Plans change. Goals change. Still make plans. Still have goals. Continue working towards something great. But be open to other paths. Trust that things work out exactly how they are supposed to.

My point is that having a plan is great. But don’t get so focused on the plan that you miss something really great that God has in store for you instead.

Find the poem “You Almost Missed the Greatness” and more in the poetry collection The Revival of a Soul.