What do you do when an important appointment suddenly gets cancelled? Appointments are a sure way to do what you want to do or need to do. We all have appointments with God, at least one of them weekly. And while God doesn’t cancel on us, it is us who often cancel on God! We are not very dependable!
This week I was anticipating an appointment thirteen days from now as I write this. This appointment was to hopefully get me relief from the endless pain I have been having to deal with. The pain complicates my life in so many ways—into and out of bed, washing the dishes, cooking, walking, standing, lifting, laundry, yard work, sweeping, vacuuming, the list is endless. Quite a few of the things I need to do, I have been forced to ask someone to do for me or many of them just go undone or postponed for some future day when there is no more pain. That is said with my tongue buried deep in my cheek! Many things simply have to be done with the pain. So, you can see I was anxiously waiting for a procedure that was mostly promising a great reduction in my pain. Though I was somewhat apprehensive about the procedure, I was still looking forward to the appointment.
This morning I received a text message! It was not a message I was able to respond to. Just a notification that my appointment was cancelled!!!!!! No explanation. No offer of being able to reschedule. No way to correspond, No reason for the cancellation. Previously I had been told that if I didn’t meet certain specifications during Test 1, I couldn’t continue with Test 2 and if I again didn’t meet those certain specifications on Test 2, once again I wouldn’t be able to continue to the end and have the procedure to end my pain possibly for up to a year. These requirements are set by the regulations of Medicare and doctors must abide by them and so do I if I want it covered financially. And I do and did! My sudden canceled appointment seemed to me that I was booted out of the program. My heart fell down to my feet! I admit to shedding a few tears! I went in search of more information. Many health services use some kind of digital way for their clients to receive information sometimes even before the referring doctor sees the test results or procedure results. I checked with MyChart several times looking for more information about why and could I reschedule? I was pretty desperate to learn if I was completely banned from pain relief because of answering something wrong unintentionally! I checked email, text messages, MyChart and then repeated my checking, and again! Finally, I decided to try to leave a message in a voicemail. I was skeptical that I was going to be successful as my number did not seem to be one that would be answered by a real person.
Few things disrupt our peace quite like a sudden cancellation. When a meeting, an interview, or a critical conversation is called off at the last minute—and met with
absolute silence instead of an explanation—it triggers an immediate spiral of questions. Did I do something wrong? Are they avoiding me? Is the opportunity gone? Human nature despises an empty hole of no answer; when we aren’t given a reason, our minds tend to fill the silence of the shut door with the worst possible scenarios. However, scripture reminds us that while human schedules are fickle, God’s power over our time is absolute. When a door shuts without an explanation, it is an invitation to move our eyes off the closed door and onto the One who holds the keys. When the Door Shuts Silently then Trust the God of the Unexplained! But for me, that is so very hard. I need to know why. Several years ago, something was taken away from me with no explanation! It took me a long time to realize that God knew the reason and I didn’t, but I had only been seeing it through my eyes and my perspective. If only we could see our problems through the eyes of God.
We tightly script our days, but God often operates in interruptions, a divine detour. A famous proverb perfectly put it this way: “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9. When an important appointment vanishes from your calendar without a “why,” we should consider it a divine detour. God does not owe us an immediate explanation for the roadblocks He allows. Sometimes, a sudden cancellation is a hidden mercy—protecting you from something you aren’t ready for, a contract that would bind you, or a conversation that would harm you, even an accident that would harm if allowed to happen. You do not need to know why the meeting was canceled when you know Who allowed the cancellation. The silence of an unexplained cancellation allows insecurity and offense and out of control thoughts. If we aren’t careful to guard our hearts, we begin to fight against the situation or the person who let us down. In these moments, I can remember the example of Paul and Silas in Acts 16. They had important plans to preach the gospel in Asia, but the Holy Spirit explicitly said NO. They were blocked again when attempting to go into Bithynia. There was no detailed explanation given to them in the moment—just a closed door. Instead of forcing their way through or sinking into frustration, they remained adaptable, which ended to leading them to Macedonia. When people leave you hanging, remember that your worth and your destiny are not tied to them.
An empty spot on your calendar is never truly empty; it is space that can be reclaimed by God for a Divine Appointment. When the world cancels, then consider the shift in a different way. Protect Your Peace and refuse to replay the scenario or invent fictional reasons for their silence. Let your “why” rest in God’s wisdom. Use the suddenly cleared time for something unexpected. Is there someone next to you who needs encouragement? Is your own soul in need of a quiet moment? God wants us to be flexible to accept His plans for us. We can pivot and take a new path forward in the present circumstances. People will forget, reschedule, or disappear. But as believers with faith, we hold a permanent invitation to God’s throne. God will never cancel an appointment with you. He is always on time, always present, and always ready to listen. He will never break an appointment He makes with me. Heavenly Father, I hand over my frustration, my confusion, and my wounded pride regarding this sudden
cancellation. It was important to me, but I choose to believe it is ultimately smaller than Your plan for me. Thank You for protecting me from things I cannot see. Cleanse my heart of resentment toward those who broke their word or left me without an answer. I place my schedule, my current story, and my future into Your hands, knowing that no human action can cancel the ultimate destiny You have written for my life. Amen.
“Man plans and God laughs, right?” It’s tempting to think that God is waiting for you to fill your daily calendar with things, just so he can whip out his red pen and put a big red X through your plans. You might be tempted to think, “why didn’t you do this sooner, God? Is this just to show me that you are the one in charge?!” The Bible has many instances when God frustrated the plans of the wicked (Nehemiah 4) and opposed the proud. At the same time, God arranges interruptions as divine appointments. Think of the many times when someone delayed Jesus or all the times when Paul’s missionary travel plans got rewritten. God frequently reroutes people or schedules in a way that just doesn’t make sense in our human understanding. Often he delivers us from one trouble only to usher us into another trouble, like when he delivered his people from Egypt, only to lead them to the edge of the Red Sea. So, when God’s strange and bizarre ways bewilder you, take courage. Remember Abraham and Sarah who waited decades for a son. Watch with Jeremiah as Jerusalem goes up in flames. Tremble with John the Baptist beneath the executioner’s sword. Weep with Mary Magdalene outside the tomb of Christ. Although God’s ways may seem strange and mysterious, he will show us that his ways, are so high above our own, and are nevertheless perfect. So take courage!” Trust and courage is what I needed when my appointment was cancelled. We need the courage to not complain, have faith, get up, and do the thing God planned, rather than us. It takes courage to keep moving forward.
So if God has tossed a hand-grenade into your plans and canceled them again: if you’re struggling with the disappointment of it all, don’t despair. God is not monkeying with you or your plans. He’s just got better plans… “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) That’s something for me to remember through times of upheaval and disappointment! I’m not so good at being flexible with sudden changes. I like making plans and sticking to them! When things change, I can react with a bad attitude and some self-pity. Just imagine how this week was going for me! I had a moment when I just let the changed plans sink in. I shed some tears. I felt the disappointment of postponing an opportunity to possibly get pain free. None of my changed plans are that big. But still, it was so disappointing. But as I gave myself a chance to just be sad, to cry and tell God my disappointment, He has this simple verse for me: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 This is one of those Proverbs that is quoted often and is sometimes used as a very annoying reminder in times like this. Because it seems to say “No matter what you plan, God will have his way, whether you like or not.” Is it encouraging when you are disappointed by changed plans? No. Did something disappoint you today? Disappointment is often just a bump in the road—not the end of the journey.
Through the promise of Romans 8:28, God can turn setbacks into setups and transform disappointments into divine appointments. Be encouraged to trust His plan—even when things don’t go your way! This is kind of sermon for myself—Are you disappointed today about something that didn’t work out, like the text call that came through this morning? “How is my appointment going to work out? Where do I go to get another or how?” And then you look out the window and start to swallow the disappointment and chew on that disappointment. Suddenly, everything in your day is built around that disappointment. Things drop, burn, spill, nothing goes right. You know what? Life is not that disappoint- ments won’t come. But when they do come, it’s just a bump in the road. It’s not the entire journey. It’s not your permanent destination. It’s just a bump in the road. And there will be bumps in the road. There will be bugs on the windshield. Don’t let that disappoint you permanently. It’s about the adjustments of life. Some things come and some things go. There are days when you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen at the end of the day. And then because you don’t know, you’re disappointed. But there’s a word from Jesus. In Romans 8:28, He says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose.” Notice what the Bible didn’t say. It didn’t say all good things or some good things or no bad things. It says, “All things,” no matter what it is, the rain, the snow, the sun, the beach, the mountains, ”all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose.” So don’t let disappointment become the focus of your life. Let the promise that disappointment is not permanent be first in your heart. Let the reality that disappointment is not the last word in the sentence but is simply another sentence to come because God can carry you through any disappointment. What about today? Is there something disappointing you? Bad news from a friend, a phone call, a job fell through, your flight got cancelled, now you’re stranded. Are you disappointed? I read a story about a man whose flight was cancelled and that flight cancellation meant he met the woman of his life. Now they’re happily married. So was it really disappointing?
Sometimes a disappointment becomes God’s appointment. So grab that disappointment and say, “This is not disappointment. This is simply God altering my schedule for something far greater than I ever saw coming. Don’t be disappointed. Give it to God. This is the way of Jesus: We’ll be interrupted and sometimes suffer, like our Savior. He invites us to accept those unexpected interruptions. How will you respond when they come?
We were on vacation when our plans were interrupted. We had traveled hundreds of miles to stay at a National Park campground and explore the park. But then our car started making a strange noise. We decided finding out what was wrong was important, so we spent the rest of the day stuck searching for help, getting turn down after turn down, told to wait for 30 days or go 100 miles to a different town. It was a big disappoint- ment and problem. And then a Good Samaritan came and gave us help and it was nearly free for us! My life is filled with interruptions, inconveniences, frustrations, and unexpected events. Things break. Accidents happen. The phone rings. Traffic makes us late. Just when we don’t need another added expense, an appliance breaks.
Unexpected illnesses change my careful plans. I could go on and on. You probably can too. The problem is I often handle these interruptions to my life poorly. I react with frustration and anger. Like a young child, I want to stomp my feet and say, “It’s not fair!” I blame others for inconveniencing me. I even throw my own pity parties.
“Small frustrations and interruptions give us opportunities to rely on God.”
Though these interruptions are unexpected and catch me off guard, they do not catch God off guard. They are not random, meaningless events. In fact, these interruptions are divinely placed in my path for a reason. God uses these interruptions to change me to be more like Christ. We often overlook interruptions and inconveniences and instead expect God to work in our lives through huge life-changing circumstances. But the reality is, we often won’t have major events in our life that cause us to trust God and obey him in some deeply profound way. We won’t be called to build an ark or take an only child up Mount Moriah. Rather, it’s in the small frustrations and interruptions, the little things in our life, where we are given opportunities to rely on God, to obey him, and to bring him glory. We all live in an endless series of little moments. Character isn’t set in ten big moments. The character is set in ten thousand little moments of everyday life.
They are in all those moments all throughout the day when things don’t go our way, our plans fail, and our life is interrupted. It’s these moments where the rubber meets the road—where our faith is stretched and we look down to see whether we are standing on rock or sand. Do we really believe that God is in control of all the details of our life? Do we really believe that his grace is sufficient? Do we really believe that Christ is powerful enough not only to save us for eternity, but also to sustain and strengthen us in the middle of life’s interruptions? Do we really believe that Christ is enough to satisfy all the deepest needs of our heart?
It’s hard to see all the little frustrating events and interruptions in our day as divinely placed opportunities to grow in grace, but they are. And seeing them as such helps us take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Christ, who cares more about our transformation than about our daily comfort. Rather than giving us a life of ease, he interrupts our lives with grace and shows us what we need most of all: himself.
How about you? Is your life filled with interruptions? Do you see God’s hand at work in them?
God Will Never Ever Cancel an Appointment with Me or You