Perfect Planner

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

Perfect Planner

             We plan our days, don’t we?  We use so many tools to keep track of things, appointments, birthdays, etc.  We use so many different planning tools our memories don’t get the exercise they used to.  Don’t think so?  I would venture to bet you can’t call out five telephone numbers in your phone!  Let me correct that last statement – your smartphone!  We even set alarms in our smartphones to help us remember an event or appointment is getting closer!

I have always been one to keep track of my day.  A desk planner has been a fixture on my desktop for the last thirty-plus years.  I don’t use it as much now as I used to, as I had meeting after meeting daily.  I guess I keep one on my desk now as a measure of “obsessive-compulsive security.”

For over a quarter of a century I was involved in military planning.  The staff would go through days and days of analysis, planning, testing, and outcome evaluation.  But there was one idiom that always stuck in the back of everyone’s mind: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy!”  Flexibility in planning is a key element that allows for adjustments after that “first contact.”

When we rise in the morning, do we have an idea what the day will bring?  Do we already have a plan?  Most of us do, but there is a saying among pastors: “God just laughs at me when I think I have a plan for today!” 

Face it; our plans are flawed.  We forget, overlook, and just have bad planning abilities.  But God’s plans are perfect.  No matter what the event, God has a time for it.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for ever matter under heaven.”  Trust me, God knows what He is doing.  He is the designer, the author, the architect, and the authority for everything for those who are called according to His purpose.  Bad things may happen to us.  Even though we may cause some of those things, God will turn those events to have outcomes that will astonish us.  I’ll say this again – God’s plans for us are perfect.  He has a place for us to be, people for us to talk with, and things for us to accomplish, all according to His perfect will.

With all this in mind, how can we get into the right frame of mind to accept what God has for us on any given day.  I invite you to read the entire third chapter of Ecclesiastes.  God has made a plan for each of us, and our individual plans fit together like an ecclesiastical puzzle.  Begin every day with a prayer and ask God to help you be flexible.  When we realize and accept God’s plans for us are far better than any we can derive, our days will be so much more amazingly blessed.  Seek out the Perfect Planner.  Our heavenly Father does know best!