The Danger of Making Plans

A few years ago I looked around, noticed that we had been in Durham for the unbelievably long time of almost 15 years, and decided (with comfort and satisfaction) that we would stay forever…

My daughter, always excited about going to college and getting a degree, had to stop taking classes so that she could spend more time taking care of her health…

One of my young friends just had to defer a semester of college to have surgery; an operation that no young person ever expects to have to deal with…

The daughter of a friend just had a surgical procedure and experienced a serious complication—one that will take a long time to recover from and keep her out of college for the next year…

 

The natural man obviously thinks he/she has some measure of control in this life.  And for long stretches of time, at least for most of us, things go along in such as way as to support this belief.  We make plans and are able to complete them.  We decide our children will have lives that look like this and that and they do. 

And then one day something happens and our plan is derailed.  Isn’t that a great image?  Because sometimes when our plan is derailed it is as messy as if a real train had derailed.  Contents spilled over the surrounding area, engine still hissing, and wheels continuing to turn as if at any moment the train will manage to right itself, hop back onto the track, and continue on it’s pre-planned way.

Sometimes it does happen that way, it is true.  Sometimes whatever has happened is merely a small interruption of the plan.  But other times, not so much.  Other times what has happened is at least a change of direction, and often a complete change of course.

 

It is so easy in these moments (in the moment I’ve been in for the last seven weeks) to resist.  To resist giving up our own (really excellent) plan, to resist realizing that we never were actually in control to begin with.  The temptation to resist is so strong. I feel it in my own heart and I see it around me. Why? It’s not like my resistance has the power to change anything except for perhaps how bad my headache is.

But I am seeing the truth in bits & pieces in my own life.  And one thing I am seeing is that as I willingly lay aside my plan, looking forward with the assumption that the Lord’s plan—unexpected and uncomfortable as it may be—is  actually the right plan for me, then those are the moments that I feel peace.

 

Tonight I am feeling an increased need to remind myself that there never was a “one size fits all” plan.  That we were never meant to be able to plot the courses of our lives or or children’s lives—no matter how fantastic or reasonable those ideas seemed.

And that it really is our Heavenly Father’s plan that is perfect for each one of us, complete with individualized challenges and experiences and tests. 

This is the challenge for me.  To keep making plans, because part of living life is making plans.  But to not become so attached to my plans that I am unable to change course when the Spirit (or the job market) directs.  And to always trust that God’s plan is the best plan for me.  Always.

 

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things,
both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom,
and all power, both in heaven and in earth;
believe that man doth not comprehend all the things
which the Lord can comprehend.
Mosiah 4:9