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Life
Gone Astray… Thankfully
By Jerri
Phillips
My fifteen-year class
reunion is next month. The last few days
have found me trading life information
with one of my high school classmates.
Included in the correspondence are the
comparisons of the plans we had as
seniors and the reality that finds us in
our early 30's. It has been interesting
to note the differences. Some of them
have been good. Others, well, sometimes
we all wonder about what might have been,
I guess. As I recounted my life's
highlights over the last fifteen years,
once again, I found myself amazed at the
meandering road that I've taken. It
certainly was not what I had planned when
I shook the superintendent's hand,
carried my diploma off the stage, and
walked into "adulthood." No,
things certainly didn't turn out like I
had intended.
Does life ever turn out like we expect?
Do our plans, either good or bad, ever
work out quite like we expect? Your life
may be different, but in my life, plans
seem to have a mind of their own. I am
finding that I don't necessarily make
plans as much as I toss out good ideas
and try to herd them in a coherent
direction. Granted, most people consider
that irresponsible or bad organization. I
consider it godly, and I think God does
too.
Have you noticed what James says about
human plans? He says, "13Now 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.'
14Why, 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. 15Instead, you
ought to say, `If it is the Lord's will,
we will live and do this or that.' 16As
it is, you boast and brag. All such
boasting is evil (chapter 4)." Is it
wrong to make plans? I don't think so.
Even Paul talked about desiring to go
places and hoping to visit someone. In
that light, I think we can say he had
plans, but he realized something that
most people don't like to acknowledge. He
was fully aware that the Lord's plans
superceded anything Paul had in mind, and
Paul had peace with that.
Do you ever wonder how Paul was so calm
and even joyful with the knowledge that
his plans were merely ideas written in
the sand? Look at his life. He was a
renowned religious leader. He commanded
respect and fear. He was a favorite of
the religious leaders and could do just
about anything he wanted, including
persecuting those pesky Christians, and
suddenly, literally out of the blue, God
interrupts Paul's plans. Paul is headed
to Damascus to arrest and persecute more
of the heretics that followed Jesus when
he is accosted by a light that leaves him
physically blind and spiritually
enlightened. He is then taken to a
stranger, who doesn't want him in his
home but accepts him because he fears God
more than Paul. Paul spends the rest of
his life moving from place to place,
getting whipped, enduring shipwrecks and
snake bites, preaching to people who keep
slipping back into religious practices,
and being put in chains because he
follows this Jesus he once thought was a
false prophet. And with all that
upheaval, Paul writes with joy, "I
once lived according to my ideas and
plans, and now, by God's grace, I am
completely different. Thank God He
delivered me from my plans. Thank God, He
invoked His plans for me because His are
life eternal and mine were death."
No, Paul doesn't use those words, but
that is what he meant.
What makes it possible to release our
plans so freely, so joyfully? Only one
thing: knowing about God's plans. Now,
granted, we do not always know God's
plans in detail, but we know enough
specifics to know they are good. Jeremiah
29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I
have for you,' declares the Lord, `plans
to prosper you and not to harm you, plans
to give you hope and a future.'" In
Psalm 57, the psalmist says, "1 Have
mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for
in you my soul takes refuge. I will take
refuge in the shadow of your wings until
the disaster has passed. 2 I cry out to
God Most High, to God, who fulfills {his
purpose} for me."
God has plans for us, and He knows what
they are. He never forgets, and He never
randomly chooses not to do them. He
fulfills His purposes for us. The word
"fulfill" (gāmar) means,
"to finish, accomplish, to be
complete." And you know what His
plans are? His plans are to prosper us,
to give us hope, and to give us a future.
God's plans are for our good. He has no
plans to harm us. Everything He does is
for our good.
Of course, the question then becomes the
definition of good, prosper, hope, and
future, and that is where the contention
often lies. Too often we think prosperity
includes monetary wealth, and sometimes
it does, but when it doesn't, we
struggle. Sometimes good is letting go of
something we think is important because
God has other priorities. Our finite
minds often see hope as something
earthly, but our hope is in Jesus, who is
the author and finisher of our faith and
our Savior and way to God and eternal
life, which is our great future. Sadly,
we too often think of our futures in the
realm of our lives here, but when God
talks about plans to give us a future, He
means eternal future, and to do that, His
plans include keeping our eyes on Him and
His Son. His plans include tearing down
gods and anything that sets itself up
against Him. His plans often mean tearing
down our plans because our plans are
frequently about self-promotion or
sometimes we simply don't see the bigger
picture. For instance, I recently read
about a pediatrician who always wanted to
work with children but hated the
insurance red tape in America. As a
result, he now runs a clinic in Haiti and
has developed a network that brings in
specialists periodically to work on
certain cases that would never have been
touched before his arrival there. The
doctor had good plans, and God refined
them into great plans. Do you think the
doctor resents that? I don't. I think he
is walking in joy and delight in God's
plans as he sees hope and a future being
opened to those around him.
Yes, life can go awry at times, and it
can be unnerving to look back and see our
great and wonderful plans lying in dirty
heaps in the ditches beside the road.
However, I am amazed at how my plans
begin to take on the appearance of
weights and burdens that I am glad I
don't carry anymore in light of God's
incredible plans that He unfolds daily to
me. Granted, I don't necessarily like all
the details He adds in (remember the
disaster in Psalm 57?), and sometimes I
wish the Lord would consult me, but I've
lived the past, and I've seen glimpses of
the future. When you compare them, well,
to say the least, it was worth the change
in plans.
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