Last Tuesday, I said something out loud in my own dining room that I had been holding in for weeks.
We planned so well for this year. But even when you plan well, if the Lord has something different for you, it is not going to happen.
Pastora Grace Maglinas and Pastor Sael Maglinas were sitting across from me, their daughter beside them; we had been talking for a while about life, about the past, about what is ahead. Pastora Grace did not answer me with advice. She answered with her story.
I have not stopped thinking about it since.
She had a plan, and it was a good one
Years ago, long before she was a pastor and before she was even a Christian, Grace was a young single woman in Davao with one clear dream; to work as an entertainer in Japan. It felt like her way out and her way up. She came to Manila, processed her documents, and was getting ready to leave the country for a better life.
Then she found out she was pregnant.
Her boyfriend gave her no support. Her family, her friends, and her cousins all begged her not to go. She did not listen. She was so set on leaving that she did not even care about the risk of being caught abroad. The plan was the plan.
And then the government stopped deploying entertainers to Japan.
Just like that, the door closed. She was furious. Have you ever been angry at a closed door, the kind of angry that comes from having already spent your hope on it? That was her. And she could not go home, because she was terrified of what her father would say when he found out she was pregnant.
So she went looking for her father’s brother, an uncle in Caloocan.
The timing she could not have planned
She found her uncle just after his wife had passed away. His young child had no one to look after them, and he needed to work abroad to provide. Grace stayed. She cared for the child while her uncle supported her through her own pregnancy.
Out of that season came a search for a church; and out of that search, she found New Life North Metro.
The rest, as she told us, is history. Today she is one of our associate pastors.
I sat there in my living room, looking at a woman who had once been so angry at a closed door, and realized I was looking at the reason it closed.
Then Sunday said it again
Yesterday, Ps Mara Morales, our Lead Pastor, preached from Nehemiah, and I could not stop hearing Pastora Grace’s story underneath every point.
She said God’s promise may not make sense to you at the time He gives it. The people around you may not understand your faith. And God does not owe you an explanation; He will not always tell you why, but He will guide and order your steps as you follow Him.
Then she said something that stung a little, in the kindest way. So often we make our plans and then ask God to bless them. It should be the other way around; Lord, this is the desire of my heart, now show me Your plans.
I know exactly how many times I have prayed it the first way.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
Grace planned a course to Japan. The Lord established her steps to an uncle’s home, a new church, and eventually a pulpit.
And here is the part of Ps Mara’s message that reframed it all for me. She reminded us that the wall in Nehemiah was rebuilt in sections, by many hands, and that the reason for building was never the wall itself; it was people. What God gives you to build is not really for you. It is for the ones He is sending your way.
A pregnant young woman in Caloocan had no idea she was being positioned to shepherd people. Every one of us who has sat in a pew and heard her story is standing on a section of wall her detour built.
What I am taking from my own living room
I do not know yet what God is rewriting in my year. But I know I have been praying my plans first and asking for blessing second, and I am ready to switch the order.
And I am noticing the small proofs that He is good in the meantime. Allen buying new gym clothes for both of us this weekend, and the two of us training side by side while Adi waited patiently; I stood there thinking, Lord, this is an answered prayer. A friend I have had since college, who reminded me on Saturday of what I am capable of and told me not to settle for less than the dream God gave me. A simple Sunday, an Italian lunch, a full heart.
I realized I spend so much energy planning the future, and on my harder days replaying the past, that I nearly miss the day actually in my hands. But if my steps belong to the One who establishes them, then I can plan with open hands and live here, at this breakfast table, on an ordinary Monday.
So if you are holding a plan that fell through, or a door that closed on something you worked hard for, I would ask you gently; what if this is not the end of your story? What if it is the road to it?
Pastora Grace is living proof that a detour can lead exactly where you were always meant to be.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) 🌿
What plan of yours did God rewrite, and what did He build out of it? I would love to hear your story in the comments. 🤍
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