By Connice Dyar
We finished our 10th Charlotte Fellows year in May! We had big plans in May...a 10 year anniversary celebration with our anniversary class of 2020! But nothing has been as planned since March and the Covid-19 made its life changing appearance.
The end of our Fellows year was vastly different than I had planned.. Instead of a party and celebration with all of our Fellows family, we ended in the way that had been our reality since March. Seeing each other from a distance or thru the slightly grainy and not so clear lens of Zoom.
We still plan on getting together in person and sealing our year together. It was too monumental and precious to let it quietly slip away without some type of celebration. It also deserves some reflection on how God showed up to make real our verse for the year, Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps.”
We had no idea in September how true this verse would be fulfilled.. What we didn’t expect was how life giving and sustaining this verse would also prove to be.
I had made plans for the year....good and creative and fun plans. So had the Fellows....things they wanted to do together and enjoy and grow in.
But God had different plans.... He knew in September what was coming in March. Even though we started scrambling in March trying to figure everything out for the next few months, God was not scrambling. He was directing all of our steps to completely align with the plans He had for us as a group and as individuals. Did it feel ok or comfortable or in any way good? No! it felt crazy and uncertain and scary and sometimes I wasn’t sure what to do or how to answer the fellows. Sometimes I felt it was partly my fault for the unexpected and unwanted circumstances. Which I knew was crazy as we were experiencing a pandemic. But we all know our feelings and fears and anxieties are many times not logical or real or wanted, but they happen and they are ours. This is where the hope and life came from our year verse. We had made plans and they were thoughtful and good. God makes plans. He is a planning and purposeful God. Making plans for our days and our lives are good things and is how God created us. But they aren’t the goal. We make the best plans we can and then we hold them loosely. Our family motto as our kids were growing up was “Flex and Obey, for there’s no other way.....”
The hard part is holding our plans loosely or the ‘flex’ part. I know because it’s how I’ve always struggled. I like knowing the plan and following thru with the plan. Change is risky and I don’t like change or risk.
But God was so faithful and gentle with us all during all the changes and unknowns and fears. The answer the fellows heard many times was, ‘I don’t know why this is happening this way and I know it stirs up lots of feelings.... But this I do know! God is good and He’s for us and we can trust Him and His heart and his plans!
And it happened...God used that verse to calm our hearts, strengthen our souls and allow us to finish the year with gratitude and thanksgiving. It was not the year or the finish that WE had planned but it was exactly the year that God had planned for us.
This 10th year class, our Anniversary Class (we are not going to call them the Pandemic class) was truly a lifegiving and beautiful class! God used them in my life and heart in too many ways to list but I am so thankful to them and to the Lord!
As I think back over the last couple of months....it took me awhile to process and also to be able to write a year end post, I know the lessons and takeaways from this past year will continue in the months ahead. Not just for the Charlotte Fellows but for all of us. These are uncertain times and we don’t know what the future holds. My prayer for us all is that when we can’t see God’s hand or what He’s doing or the plan, that we can trust His Heart! His heart for us is good and true and certain!
Thank you for all your prayers and support and words of encouragement! They have been very appreciated and felt these past months.
Please continue to join us in prayer for this upcoming Charlotte Fellows year. We are again making plans but also knowing and having peace that the Lord will direct our steps!
Grateful for you all,
Connice