When the Plan Leaks
Monday was supposed to be an at-home catch-up day.
We had come off an incredibly busy week, and Monday had a list of things that specifically needed to happen on Monday. I had plans. I had computer work. I had errands in town. I had things ready to move forward.
And then we woke up to water dripping from the bathroom ceiling.
Well, that will wake you up faster than coffee. Because “water coming through the ceiling” does not initially sound like a minor adjustment to the schedule.
It sounds like catastrophe. Roof leak? Major plumbing issue? Ceiling about to cave in? How expensive is this going to be?
You know. All the calm and rational thoughts that immediately run through your brain while staring at water somewhere water absolutely should not be. 😂
understatement.
He starts investigating, gets into the attic, follows the water, and discovers that praise the Lord, this is not a roof leak.
It is coming from the AC.
Okay. Still not ideal. But already better.
Then we figure out it is not the AC unit itself, just the drain pan underneath it has failed.
Again — inconvenient. Needs immediate attention. But compared to where our minds had gone when we first saw the ceiling? This was very good news.
Unfortunately, good news did not mean our original Monday was coming back to us.
I would now have to get the boys to school, and Peter was now dealing with the AC instead of heading to work.
As I was going out the door, I asked whether I needed to come straight home or whether I could grab everything I needed for my in-town errands and knock those out while I was already there.
He was standing in the middle of his own disrupted morning and said, “No, I need you to come straight back. I need you to take me to the River House to get the truck so I can go get the parts.”
Okay. So I left all my errand stuff at home and headed out with the boys.
Now, could he have driven himself to the River House, left one vehicle there, taken the truck to get what he needed, and then had me help shuffle vehicles around later?
Did either one of us think of that while there was water coming through the ceiling?
Absolutely not. 😂
And... about 10 minutes out of the driveway, the call that he would do just that came and in fact he did not need me to come straight back after all.
Nobody was operating at peak logistical capacity at that point.
So I finished school drop-offs and came home without accomplishing any of the errands I could have done because all of the things I needed were sitting exactly where I had left them.
Fine. Monday had adjusted. I would work from home and take care of the errands that afternoon when I would head back to town to pick them up from school.
Except now I apparently had a second job.
or HVAC assistant.
Mechanic's assistant.
Or attic assistant.
I'm not sure what my official title was. But it involved a lot of:
“Hey babe, can you hand me that?”
“Can you go grab this?”
“I need the other one.”
“Can you bring me…?”
And every time I sat down in front of my computer and finally got my brain focused…
“Hey babe…”
And I could feel the frustration trying to creep in. Because this was supposed to be my catch-up day. I had things to do too. I needed some uninterrupted time.
But somewhere in the middle of being called away from the computer again, I had the thought that completely changed my attitude:
His morning got interrupted too.
Peter had not awakened that morning thinking, “You know what would be fun? Crawling around in the attic half my height and figuring out why water is coming through the bathroom ceiling.”
Our day had been interrupted.... together.
Once I saw it that way, everything felt different. I finally abandoned the idea of concentrated computer work for a while and switched to something in the kitchen. If I was going to be getting up every few minutes anyway, I might as well work on something that could tolerate interruptions and already be on my feet.
And little by little, the crisis became a repair. The panic became a project.
The “what in the world are we going to do?” became “hand me that tool.”
By the time it was all said and done, I could see just how much had actually gone right in a morning that had felt completely wrong.
It was not the roof. Praise the Lord.
It was not the AC unit. Praise the Lord again.
It was a part that could be inexpensively replaced, and my husband knew how knew how to repair it. WOW... Praise the Lord AGAIN!
A friend had a good suggestion for how to lift the AC unit enough to get the new pan underneath it. We did not have to wait for an emergency repair company. We did not have to pay someone else to do work Peter was capable of doing. And because both of us have some flexibility in our work, we could rearrange the morning when life suddenly demanded it.
The boys got to school. The AC got fixed. The ceiling did not collapse.
Nobody died.
Monday survived and so did we.
I am a planner. I like knowing what needs to happen. I like completing loops. I like when Monday's work happens on Monday.
There is nothing wrong with making plans.
But Proverbs 16:9 says:
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
I have always read verses like that as though God is going to redirect my life into some enormous spiritual assignment... and sometimes He might. But today the redirected step is literally: Go hand your husband another tool.
Sometimes faithfulness looks less like completing the plan and more like releasing my grip on it. Not because my plan was bad but because something more immediate was standing in front of me.
The morning felt so frustrating at first because I kept measuring it against what I thought it was supposed to be doing in that time frame. Once I stopped doing that, I could see what the morning actually was.
Inconvenient.... Absolutely. But it was also full of provision that reminded me of Paul's words:
“Give thanks in all circumstances…”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Not necessarily for every circumstance. I am not particularly thankful that the AC pan rusted out. I would have been perfectly happy for it to remain intact. But there was plenty to be thankful for inside the circumstance.
Thank You that it was not the whole AC unit.
Thank You for a husband who knows how to fix things.
Thank You for friends with good ideas.
Thank You for work flexible enough to accommodate real life.
Thank You that we found the problem before it became something worse.
Thank You that we had what we needed to deal with what was directly in front of us.
None of that made the interruption disappear. It just kept the interruption from being the only thing I noticed.
But maybe sometimes I need to stop measuring the day by the plan I made. Because the morning did not go according to plan, and yet so much went right.
The problem was caught, solvable. We had the skills, tools, and flexibility necessary. And, we had each other.
The work that needed to happen got done, just not the work I had originally written on my list.
That is different from a wasted day.
Maybe the question is not: “Why is this ruining my day?”
Maybe it is: “Lord, help me see what You have already provided for this day instead.”
Sometimes the leak really is a catastrophe. Sometimes life brings things much harder than a broken AC pan. But.... sometimes what initially looks like disaster turns out to be a manageable inconvenience surrounded by a lot of mercy.
And I do not want to miss the mercy because I am too busy being annoyed that it was not on the schedule.
Where has an interruption made you feel like everything has gone wrong — and what provision might you notice if you stopped measuring the moment against your original plan?
Lord, thank You for the plans we are able to make and for the wisdom to change them when life requires it. When interruptions come, help me respond with grace instead of frustration. Give me eyes to see Your provision inside circumstances I did not choose, and remind me that a changed plan does not mean a wasted day. Help me be faithful with whatever is actually in front of me and to always focus on what matters most. Amen.
Until next time, keep following the Plott, and I will be praying for us all. 💛
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