Would you leave when his plan confused you?

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. (Luke 24:9-11 NIV)

Jesus was dead.  They saw it with their own eyes.  Their own eyewitness accounts recalled the soldier thrusting the spear into his side.  Blood and water flowed out.  There was no more lifeblood left in him.  He was dead.  They watched as they took him down from the cross.  They watched him being laid in the tomb.  They watched the stone being rolled in front.  Jesus was dead.

He wasn't the only one dead.  Their hopes were dead.  Their dreams were dead.  The plans that they thought were God's plans were dead.  None of it made any sense.  He was dead.  He was supposed to lead the revolt against the existing authorities.  He was supposed to rule as King and bring peace to all the earth.  But instead...he, and any hope that he was the one, was dead.

That's why the women's words sounded like nonsense.  They didn't make sense because they didn't match the picture, their picture, of what God was doing.  They had left.  His plan wasn't their plan.  His plan didn't make sense.  His plan confused them...so they left.

The thing is...they didn't need to be confused.  His plan could have made sense if they had simply listened to what he had told them:

• From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Matthew 16:21 NIV)
• But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." (Matthew 17:12 NIV)
• "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!"  (Matthew 20:18-19 NIV)
• When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away--and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." (Matthew 26:1-2 NIV)
• I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matthew 26:29 NIV)

I've had too many times in my life when I've tried to understand God's specific plan for my life and, as a result, I stop paying attention to His bigger picture - the plan He already explained to me through the pages of Scripture.  I wonder just how much easier it would have been for the disciples had they listened to what Jesus told them rather than worry about the "reality" they thought they were facing.  They could have excitedly anticipated his resurrection rather than considering it "nonsense."

The older I get, the more I rest in what He has revealed to us and the less I worry about what He hasn't revealed.  I'm trusting more and more each day that He knows what's most important for me to know and He shared it.  This is why I read Scripture every day.  I don't want to be confused by His plans.  Worse than that, I don't want to "leave" because of confusion.  I want to listen to what He has said and trust in Him.

How about you?  Would you leave when his plan confused you?