In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Proverbs 16:9
I have always been a huge fan of plans. From childhood I loved to sit back and imagine what my future path would be. Sometimes I even broke out pen(cil) and paper to calculate what it would take to get to where I wanted to go (when I was older I started using Excel. Yes. Excel).
Needless to say, none of my plans actually panned out. Life has a funny way of taking twists and turns that are impossible to predict, doesn’t it? At least on our end.
Last week Pastor Isaac reminded us that when we plan, we need to do so with humility, because our plans will only come to fruition if they are in line with God’s will. I think another way to put it might be that since our minds are limited, we can only plan with the little we know and the little we can control. No one human being can control or predict the behavior of every person, animal, weather pattern, financial market, business, society, country…you get the idea.
There is a saying, “We know what we know.” But I’d argue that it’s more accurate to say “We only know what we think we know.” Everything else is conjecture.
What do you call an assumption based on latent (the things we pick up subconsciously) knowledge?
A hypothesis.
What do you call a hypothesis that has been tested and proven to be (mostly) true, most of the time?
A theory.
What do you call a theory that has been tested and that has been determined to accurately and consistently predict an outcome?
A fact.
My friend, when we make plans we are using theories at best as our foundation. We can see what is behind us, yes, but even that is flawed, what with our imperfect memories and our inability to remember every what, why, when and how that has happened in all of history. No one can, except for one person(s). I’ll let you guess…
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…
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Yep. God makes plans using facts.
With that in mind, is it any wonder that God wants us to make sure our plans align with His?
Humility is not just in submitting your will to God’s, but it is also in understanding that we are nowhere near as knowledgable, powerful, present, wise, or in any other way perfect as God.
Friend, I hope that this reminder will bring you peace and confidence as you follow your future path. When your plans fail, don’t be discouraged. Just take it as a theory you made that has been proven wrong. And be confident in the knowledge that someone much more capable than you are is in charge of your (and everyone else’s) life.
God bless you,
