The Best Laid Plans

 

Scripture

Proverbs 19:21

 ²¹ The human mind may devise many plans,
    but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.  (NRSV)

 

Devotion

I am the type of person who likes to stick to a clear course of action.  There's the monthly calendar with color coded entries hanging on my bedroom wall; the running daily/weekly to do lists with things to cross out before I can leave the office; the there's the biweekly shopping list carefully cross-referenced with a fortnight's worth of meal plans tacked and coupons tacked to my refrigerator door.  You get the idea.  I even have a tendency to plan my days off by scheduling activities as "read that new book," "sleep in" or "go for a walk."  Having plans make me feel competent, confident, and in control.

 Human beings like to believe that if make good plans and stick to them, then we can remain safely in charge of our destiny.  Life, though, has a way of interrupting whatever we've got goin on.    Emergencies pop up.  Unexpected opportunities or challenges arise.  And sometimes, things simply don't work out.  And in those moments, we can be find ourselves worried about what to do next.  "What should I do," we wonder, "now that my carefully laid plans have gone awry?  How do I get things back on track?  Or should I even try to do so?"

 The Book of Proverbs can be a great help in moments like those.  There, we learn that we can make all the plans we want, but it is God's purposes that will ultimately prevail.  This piece of wisdom provides both a challenge and a sense of comfort.  The challenge comes in the way it encourages us to see life's interruptions not as things to overcome or avoid...but as part of God's good purposes.  On the comforting side of things, it lets us know that dropping what we are doing in order to go in a new direction or putting something on hold for a while isn't necessarily a failure on out part.  It is part of responding to God's higher purposes.  And we can trust that no matter how difficult things may get or how far we get from how we expected things to be, God's good plans for us will prevail.   

We can see evidence of this proverb's truthfulness throughout the Bible.  God called a shepherd boy away from watching his father's flocks so that he could be anointed as Israel's next king.    Queen Esther was asked to put aside the regular duties of a queen and interrupt what her husband King Ahaseurus was doing in order to save her people.  The apostle Paul would plan a trip to one city only to find himself preaching the Gospel somewhere completely different.  Even Jesus himself made brief detours from his established plans in order to address someone's pressing need.  In all these cases and more, God's purposes were established not in our human-made plans, but in the disruptions to them.

I find it more than a little ironic that God called me to a profession where the Holy Spirit regularly asks me to let go of my plans in order to focus on someone or something else needing attention.  From emergency hospital trips to a community member who pops into the office with a question or a mission opportunity, there is something pulls me in a different direction at least once I day.  And as my schedule of carefully made plans flies out the window, I have two options for how to react: 

1. Resent the interruptions that have sent me off track.
2. Accept them as part of God's good and wise purpose for my life.

Much as I may grit my teeth as I readjust schedules on the fly and move a task or two to the next day,  I've come to find that most fulfilling parts of my day often come during life's interruptions. Christ sits beside me as I hold someone's hand in a waiting room.  The Holy Spirit and listens in on unexpected phone calls and guides the conversation.  God pours abundant blessings into the world each time I am asked to stop away from what I am doing so I can go help with a certain project.   Moving away from all my carefully made plans still makes me uncomfortable, but I am learning to trust that God knows best.  And the more I work on being flexible enough to trust in what God has put on my plate, the better I become at doing my part to fulfill God's purposes.

 

This week, let's all commit to being a bit more flexible and a bit kinder to ourselves when faithful living requires us to step away from our carefully laid plans. As we do so, let us look for glimpses of the Christ's presence amidst  life's disruptions.  For I promise you, God is there....and while things may not go precisely as we planned, the Holy Spirit will ensure that God's purposes will be be accomplished through us.

 

Prayer

 Thank you, Jesus, for accomplishing God's purposes through us.  May I be flexible with my plans and learn to trust in you as I follow your will. Amen.