His Plan or Ours?

 “Life could be so different in four years!” I stated after explaining my extravagant plans for moving, going to school, graduating, having children, going overseas, etc.

“Ya,” Jordan’s grandma replied, “the Lord could come back; we could be in Paradise.”

At that moment I felt as if the Holy Spirit smacked me in the back of the head and asked me if I forgot that I’m not in control. I’m not even in control of my own life. Sure, God is leading us to move. Sure God wants us to make plans. But my hope and security should not be in my own plans. A good friend of mine told me to make plans but hold them in an open hand. Never close my fist around my plans, lest God have to pry open my hands to show me his plan. Rather, make plans, and allow God to change them whenever he so chooses.

Now this is a lesson that I always think I’ve learned, at least until God shows me that I have yet again fallen in the habit of planning every little detail of whatever I can. You see I love planning. I love making lists. You can ask Jordan--I have lists about everything. I have our next month planned out to what we will eat every night, when we will relax, when we will hang out with people and so on. Now sometimes this is good and useful. I just need to remember that I may plan my way, “but the Lord establishes [my] steps (Proverbs 16:9).

So this means that Jordan and I plan on moving this summer. We plan on going back to school. Eventually we plan on graduating, having a family, and being missionaries. However, our primary goal is to give glory to God by following His will. So if (when) God shows us that His will is something other than what we had thought, we will follow Him. It is about His will and His plan, not ours.