There’s a small company in our area called ‘The Perfect Plan.”
They’re in the “helping people move” business. If you get transferred out of the area they’ll coordinate all the details of your relocation from turning off the electric to handing you the keys to your new home when you arrive. It’s seems like a great service.
Every time I drive by their sign I laugh and think to myself, I stopped trying to come up with one of those years ago.
I tried.
Lord knows I tried.
But the problem is every time I sat down to come up with a perfect plan for my life – complete with where I’d be, who I’d be with, what I’d be doing, and how I’d be doing it – every time, and I mean virtually every time, I ended up way off target.
Thank goodness. Some of the best things in my life have come as a result of not planning for them, but simply accepting them as they came.
Proverbs 16:9 reminds us,
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.
I take that to mean that planning is a good thing, especially when it comes to things like moving. Relocating your entire family out of state and having your refrigerator end up in Biloxi and your cat end up in Las Cruces is not a good thing.
But life planning always involves humility; acknowledging that ultimately we’re not the ones who are in control and that despite our best efforts, any plan we create will be a “tenuous sure to be adjusted” plan at best.
Years ago Thomas Merton wrote a prayer that I thought you might find helpful. I read it years ago in a small book he wrote called, Thoughts In Solitude. Whenever I feel my life swirling out of control and I’m tempted to put together a flawless re-launch strategy for my life, I’ll pull this out and read it:
My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
What’s been your experience with trying to “over plan” your life? I’m particularly interested in how you think what I shared differs from what Michael Hyatt shared in his post The Missing Ingredient In Most Goals.
