According to Plan

Sometimes I think that too many Christian time management experts consider themselves time managers first and Christians second. In the past year, I have read at least two "how to plan your long-term schedule for maximum effectiveness" articles, written by believers, that failed to even touch on James 4:13-16: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil" (NIV).

Or as Woody Allen put it, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." Although I doubt that God is actually laughing at me at the moment--at least not in a derogatory manner--I don't find it particularly funny that last night's thunderstorms flooded my apartment parking lot and left a two-inch puddle of water in my car, particularly since I had to interrupt today's carefully planned work schedule to bail it out and then arrange for professional water-damage treatment that wasn't in my budget. I do not have an especially good track record when it comes to joyfully accepting life's frustrations as God's means of building my spiritual maturity.

There's some comfort in knowing that God is never caught off guard and that nothing can spoil His plans. I just wish He would give me a few more details on His plans so I could structure my plans accordingly. There are times when I wonder if any kind of human-level planning falls into the category of "evil boasting," perhaps because I have always had an idolatry problem in that area. I loathe disappointment of any sort; and like the alcoholic who can't be trusted to take a single sip of wine, I tend to take even a small amount of prewritten scheduling and turn it into an obsessive drive, unable to stop for a rest or to accept that sometimes doing things "as planned" is impossible. I have trouble understanding--truly grasping from the heart--that God is more interested in molding me into the image of Christ than in seeing me accomplish the maximum level of obviously productive work. Even if that work is good and necessary and intended for His glory.

Actually, we ourselves, as Christians, are God's greatest work and the greatest testimony to His glory. Although I've frequently been one of those people who insist on learning everything the hard way, at least I rarely throw outright tantrums anymore over spoiled plans. Perhaps the most valuable lesson in this area comes from God's words in Is. 55:9: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

It's when we become so attached to our plans that we put our ways and thoughts above God's, that planning becomes evil boasting.

As our lives become mazes of schedules,
As we head off each "maybe" we can,
Let us not lose our eyes for God's guidance
In a drive for "according to plan."

Those who boast of their schemes for the future,
Who presume what will happen to scan,
Are those souls who are worshiping idols
In the form of "according to plan."

Only God knows the things that are coming;
There is no mortal woman or man
Who can see one short hour toward the future--
Things may not go according to plan.

But for those who trust Christ and His Spirit,
And the One through Whom all things began,
There need never be fear of the ending--
God is working according to plan!

Every Day He Has a Fresh Surprise

If anyone reading this is planning a surprise party for a friend or relative, consider this advice: before you go through with it, make certain you know the guest of honor well enough to be sure he or she will welcome the surprise. The traditional surprise party has been described as a perfect means of catching someone physically and emotionally unprepared to celebrate, and yet unable to express any annoyance without sounding ungrateful and churlish. My own father kept his birthday secret for most of his life, to make sure he would never fall victim to such an attack.

Even those who claim to like surprises would rather not be surprised at inconvenient moments: the sudden invitation to dinner when we're ready to drop from an exhausting day; the potential client who rings the doorbell when we're half finished cleaning the fireplace. All of us want to maintain some degree of control over our lives.

That's one reason we resist serving a God Who reserves the right to surprise us at a moment's notice. Moses was living the relatively safe and comfortable life of a shepherd when God called him to drop everything and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Joseph was about to settle down and get married when he learned his fiancee was pregnant with the Son of God. Paul had to put up with regular last-minute changes from the day God interrupted his trip to Damascus. It would be hard to find a Bible hero or historic saint who never was caught off guard by divine instruction (verbal or circumstantial)--and many of them cooperated only after considerable argument and foot-dragging.

So when we don't want to follow surprise orders from God, we're in good company. Still, if we truly believe that He knows best and has our interests at heart, it only makes sense to act promptly on His leadings.

Even when they surprise us before we have the chance to wash up from cleaning the fireplace.

In this sad world where all may seem uncertain,
Our God is ever constant, sure, and wise--
But do not think Him also neat and tidy,
For every day He has a fresh surprise.

Our Lord is no one we can take for granted,
Who hands out favors like some contest prize,
Or Who makes rich or poor those who "deserve it"--
But every day He has a fresh surprise.

His wisdom is beyond our comprehension;
His ways are often strange to mortal eyes:
We see the pieces; He sees the whole picture--
And every day He has a fresh surprise.

Do not complain your plans have come to nothing,
But count yourself as blessed; look to the skies
Where dwells the One Who works all things for goodness;
And let yourself rejoice in each surprise.

Unexpected-ations

Fuming over the past month's disappointments cost me $600 this morning--paid out to my dentist to treat stress-aggravated gum inflammation. A sore mouth is by no means the worst thing that a "why me?" attitude can do to your health. Back in 1944, the book Stop Worrying and Get Well described how fretting feeds everything from colds to rheumatism to diabetes; advances in medical science have since only confirmed that, while "stressing out" has never added an hour to anyone's life (cf. Mt. 6:27), it can easily take hours off our lives.

For me at least, one of the easiest ways to get upset is to set my heart on something and then see things refuse to go according to plan. Often, things don't even have to actually go wrong--the fear that they might does enough damage on its own. If we built physical idols today, the inscription on my favorite would read, "Satisfied Expectations."

And, like all idols, expectations disappoint us. When that happens, we can wail over the unfairness of life, turn surly and punish innocent bystanders, shake our fists at God--or swallow some much-needed humble pie and ask, "Lord, what do You want me to learn from this? What better thing do You have for me than what I was hoping for?"

He may not answer clearly or immediately. But merely making the effort to submit ourselves to His will, rather than fighting it, will lower our stress levels.

And besides benefiting our physical health, it will do wonders for our spiritual health.

We all have our expectations
About what we will do or be,
But God has plans of His own kind,
And they come unexpectedly.

When you see your expectations
Interrupted or shoved aside,
Do you fume at the inconvenience,
Or demand your own way in pride?

Why not see it as God's timing?
Why not welcome the things He sends?
Don't swear at His interruptions;
Learn to take them from Him as friends!

For greater than expectations
Ever formed by the human heart,
Is our Lord's greater purpose for us,
In which each small thing plays a part.

And greater than we can hope for
From the world where we live today,
Are the things He has waiting for us,
Better than any tongue can say.

But if we wish to be ready
For that Kingdom which He prepares,
We must let Him remake us for it;
We must trust that He knows and cares.

And when our own expectations
Are different from that which He knows
Will make us in Christ's perfect image--
Then He must do away with those.

But with every expectation
That He crushes into the dust,
He gives us something better for it--
As we see when we learn to trust.

We all have our expectations
About what we will do or be,
But our Lord's unexpected-ations
Bless us so unexpectedly!