Plans

The Bible tells us that rather than saying “Tomorrow I will do this or that” we should say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  I got an example of that this week.

Wanda and I had a nice plan for last Friday and Saturday.  Friday we were going to go to Pierre to have lunch with some pastor friends and their spouses.  Then we were going to go to Blunt to spend some time with Wanda’s parents.  Then, we’d go to Onida for Supper with the Pastor, then go back to Blunt to spend the night.  Then, on Saturday, we’d go to Armour to visit my parents, coming back to Blunt Saturday night.  Then we’d get up on Sunday and work our way back to Gettysburg, conducting our usual Sunday worship services on the way.

It was a good plan.  We liked it.  And Friday morning, we started to put it into action.  I gassed up the car, picked up Wanda, and we headed down to Pierre.  And about ten minutes later, we turned around and headed back to Gettysburg.  The wind, which hadn’t seemed all that bad in town, was blowing snow across the road.  A lot of it.  And some of it was sticking to the road, making it icy.  And so our plans changed.  We did not go to Pierre, we did not go to Blunt, we did not go to Onida, we did not pass Go, we did not collect two hundred dollars.  Instead, we stayed in Gettysburg the rest of Friday and all day Saturday.  We had a plan for Friday and Saturday, but it turned out that God had a different plan.

This has happened a lot in my life.  I make a plan, only to find out that God has a different plan.  At one time, my plan was that I’d work for the state in Pierre all my life.  God had a different plan.  At one time, my plan was that I’d be a lawyer in Wessington Springs for the rest of my life.  God had a different plan.  At one time, my plan was that I’d stay in North Sioux City for many years.  God had a different plan.  Right now, my plan is that we’ll stay in Gettysburg.  Will God have a different plan?  I guess we’ll see.

Now, the moral of this story is not that we should never make plans.  It’s really not possible to live your life that way.  But we need to remember that our plans are always subject to God’s will.  And that’s what our goal should always be:  to follow God’s will.

That can be tricky.  Sometimes we convince ourselves that our plan has to be God’s will.  And sometimes, we get really frustrated when it doesn’t seem to be working that way.  I’ve had times where I was completely convinced that what I wanted must be what God wanted, and I could not understand why things were not going the way I wanted them to go.  But eventually, sometimes after a long period of beating my head against the wall, I realized that I’d gotten too carried away with what I want, and I need to pull back and seek God’s will, rather than my own.

There’s nothing wrong with having plans.  But we always need to remember that our plans are subject to God’s plans.  If it is the Lord’s will, I’ll follow my plan.  But if it’s not, I hope I’ll follow God’s plan.  And I hope you will, too.