Christian Living

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Planning has become almost an art form. With the blackberry attached at the hip, the extravagantly oversized desk calendars sprawled out, or reminder post-its littered on laptop screens and folders. Further, if you ask many people what their one-year, five-year, even ten-year plans are, they have concoctions spewing, extrapolated formulas for where they 'should' be in X number of years.

If we are living our life for today, this would not be the case.
In living our lives for tomorrow and, regrettably, for ourselves, no wonder this is a rising trend.

Here we are, busy little ants, all a-flutter for tomorrow, meanwhile missing out on the gift of today. How many work so hard only to tragically die young. What good comes of that retirement fund they were slaving away for, or the expensive new sports car their earnings paid for, now totaled in the car wreck that took their life? Proverbs 27:1 instructs not to "boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Who are we to declare what will be tomorrow. As we see with any natural disaster, or the attacks on 9/11, your car simply not starting to miss today's big interview, and your world could be turned topsy-turvy in the morning, or even in an hour. God forbid, when you're giving your husband a goodbye kiss on your way to the grocery store, it could be your last time seeing him. And yet, pen in hand, we plan.

What we seem to forget day in and day out, is that God may have a completely different plan for us than what we think, AND, comfortingly, He knows better. Choosing your professional career at age seventeen (or even earlier) and chasing it down hard-headedly, without outlook or tolerance for other opportunities can be considered quite ignorant. How limiting your life may be, if you forget to include God's Master Plan in your own. God has an amazing plan for each of us, using the talents He gave us; if we are blind to that, we will never know true purpose in life. "'Woe to the obstinate children', declares the Lord, 'to those who carry out plans that are not mine.'" Isaiah 30:1. Call me easily scared, but I sure don't want any "woe" from the almighty God on me.

Now, don't read me wrong here. God gave us all brains, too, with the ability to organize and plan. The point is, to ensure God is being consulted on your plans, and minding any differences in His plans for you. Proverbs 21:30 reads, "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord." Conversely and ever graciously, Proverbs 16:3 reads,"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." There is a delicate balance between planning for tomorrow while living for today. The Bible teaches that if we prayerfully include God in our plans, matching them up with His Will, our life will have more purpose and drive than we could have ever imagined on our own. Stay open...there is nothing wrong with working hard, but stay open to the exciting happenings of life!


There is no need for a calendar SO big, that each square has to be a quarter-sized sheet of paper. If you need that much space to enter your daily appointments and plans, it's probably a fair assumption that you are depending on your own plans too heavily, written to whomever made and bought the calendar. What a freeing idea, when Jesus instructs his listeners in Matthew 6:25-34: "O, you of little faith...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

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