I love to plan. It makes the days seem a little easier and the future a bit brighter. Or maybe I should say that I love to dream instead, after all, I have noticed that my plans don’t usually work out very well. But I have seen dreams come true.
There is a saying out there…”people plan, and God laughs.” I think that it more apt to say that, “people plan, and God sighs.” He must just shake His head and wonder why we keep planning and messing things up…we can’t see the BIG PICTURE! He can see our beginning and end, and everything in between. He knows where we are meant to go, but we keep wandering off the path and trying things out on our own. Then when finally we mess it up, we come running back to Him, crying and asking Him WHY???
Why did He let this or that happen?
Why didn’t the plans go so well? Nothing was successful!!
Why did it all mess up? Didn’t He want the best for us?
Wasn’t that where He wanted us to go? The doors seemed to be open.
Well it’s obvious, we cannot see what God sees. We can’t see past our nose to the next day. We think we can control our own destiny, but in reality, we can keep ourselves really busy without really going anywhere. We can settle into a job, living a life of routine. Going to church a few times a week, if we have the time, and just co-existing with others on a large well-travelled road. Some of us don’t look too far into the future, it makes us scared, while others plan to the nth degree. Homes, retirement savings, college funds for the unborn children, and even buying vacation homes with the thought that we know where we will always want to go on our vacations.
No wonder God is sighing. There is no room for Him in our daily lives. He gets allocated to a few hours a week, and if we want to be truly spiritual, we volunteer somewhere an extra bit. But on our terms, and when we want to plan for it.
Don’t get me wrong. God has called us to live a life with Him…and it is in service of daily life. We are to work, and have families, and in general make our communities a better place. He wants us to support our church family and our government…because that is foundational in a functioning society. But I don’t believe that that is all He wants in our lives.
So, what does He want?
He wants all of us!! Every waking minute of every day! Walking with Him, talking to Him. Getting to know Him. Asking for His guidance, direction, and will for every step in our lives.
Is that too scary? Suppose He wants you to sell everything and move to Bangladesh? That just wouldn’t work, would it? It wouldn’t work with your plans. What if that was part of His big picture for you? Don’t you think that He would also be preparing you for it? There would have been a small voice inside of you…maybe for years…a voice calling out for you to follow.
Are we ready to see the big picture? Are we ready to surrender and start the adventure with God? Are we ready to give Him full control, and see where we end up? Can we believe that it will all be so rewarding, living in full surrender of His will?
I know I need to give up my planning, but not my dreaming. After all, so many of our dreams have been given to us by our creator. He dreams big for us, and he dreams a life worth living for all of us!! We can only see in our finite little space, let’s give that smallness up…and see what happens!
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:7, 8, 13, 14 NKJV)
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalms 37:4-7 NKJV)