Hold Your Plans Loosely
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “The only constant in life is death and taxes.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement. I’m a planner. I plan on a macro and micro level as I suspect many people do. Just so we are clear on our terms, micro is me planning to take Karen out to dinner next Friday. Macro is me planning to get our church a permanent building. As followers of Jesus it’s important for us to hold our plans loosely because you never know if God’s plan might be different than our plans. You don’t get too far into the Bible when you begin to see this play out.
Take Genesis 12 for example. Abraham is living comfortably on his ranch enjoying his retirement years when God speaks to him and says, “I have a new plan for you. I want you to leave your native country, your relatives, and your Father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” Abraham says yes to God and goes on the adventure of a lifetime. In his wildest dreams I’m sure Abraham never imagined his life would turn out the way it did. In the New Testament Dr. Luke after finishing his residency plans to have a nice career treating people for sickness. At some point he commits his life to Jesus and the next thing he knows he’s traveling the world with the apostle Paul experiencing things they never trained him for at his university.
When you made a decision to follow Jesus did you consider that your plans and God’s plans for your life might not be the same? If not, you might be white knuckling your way through life right now wondering what you got yourself into or maybe you are beginning to realize this is part of the Christian experience. I became a serious Jesus follower six weeks after graduating from high school. At that point in my life my plans looked like this.
Go to San Jose State on a track scholarship and make my mark in collegiate track.
After college, get into high school coaching of track and field with the hopes of eventually coaching at a big time college like UCLA or USC.
Get married and have children.
Buy a nice home.
Enjoy a nice retirement and live happily ever after.
So I got married, had kids and bought a home but everything else I planned never happened.
It wasn’t like God wrecked my plans but he had a different plan. In fact his plans for my life turned out better than I ever could have imagined. That’s not to say my life has been a cake walk. I've gone through some dark seasons in my life.The good news is that God saw me and I’m convinced sometimes carried me through the tough times. Looking back it’s obvious to me that some of those dark seasons were actually part of God’s plan. God did some much needed character building in those difficult years. I’m not telling you this to suggest that God is going to wreck all your plans. Keep on planning but hold them loosely and know that if God decides to change your plans it’s not something to be feared but rather something to rejoice in.
Speaking of plans, Pacific Life Church has a new plan. We have been holding our services outside for a couple of months now. It’s actually been a lot of fun but last week it started getting cold. And just like that, the auditorium opened up to us. We have been waiting for the auditorium to be available for the last eight months. The best part is that we get to celebrate our Christmas Eve service in our newly renovated auditorium. By the time you read this we will have celebrated our first service back in the auditorium. I hope you will do your best to join us soon.
On a personal note, Karen and I will be moving for the 3rd time in 3 years. Talk about pivoting! We didn’t plan to move but circumstances dictated the move. We are moving to Bay Park at the end of this month. The new home we are moving into requires that we provide our own washer, dryer and refrigerator. If anyone has an extra one available please contact Karen or myself.
Love and blessings,
Steve