Best laid plans....

I have always thought the saying was "the best laid plans of mice and men often go amiss".  But actually it is "the best laid schemes of mice and men/Go oft awry".  This is from a poem by Robert Burns.  John Steinbeck took a part of this phrase and wrote the famous book "Of Mice and Men".

Have you ever made plans and something has happened to change them?  You plan a day to go to the beach or an amusement park...and then it rains!  You plan to go on a vacation and something happens to the vehicle and you can't go.  You plan on going to relatives for Christmas and "bam!" a snow storm.  I'm sure you get the point now.

Twice, Jane and I planned on going to the Outer Banks to see the lighthouses and my cousin who lives in North Carolina.  Both times something happened with our van and we didn't get to go.  Therefore we stopped planning.  Remember the previous blog about unmet expectations being disappointments?  I was totally disappointed.

As children, we start making plans.  We always get asked that famous question "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  For years I wanted to be a teacher.  Then I wanted to be a preacher.  Then I wanted to be a psychologist.  Then I wanted to be a youth minister.  Then I wanted to be a deaf interpreter.  I have been a substitute teacher and a teacher's aide.  I have been a preacher and a youth minister.  I have been a deaf interpreter.  I have not been a pyschologist, but I did work for a mental health agency.

Notice all the phrases in the above paragraph have the words "have been".  Past tense.  Sometimes our plans are not God's plans.  That's why we need to read and remember Proverbs 16:3...

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do,

and your plans will succeed. (NIV)

I have had my plans changed many times in the last 25 years as an ordained minister.  But I always relied on Isaiah 40:31 "those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount upon wings as eagles; they shall walk and not be faint; they shall run and not become weary" (Jeff's paraphrase).  Then there is this verse in the book of Esther.  Mordecai says to his cousin Esther, after she becomes queen, that maybe she became queen when she did was to save her people (again my paraphrase).  He uses the words "for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14 New International Version).  Then I discovered Jeremiah 29:11...

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord,

"plans to propser you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

I realize these last two blogs have been kind of "downers".  But I am working through some personal issues so I am trying to encourage myself and hopefully encourage you also.  Afterall, the Bible has many verses about encouraging one another.

Planning the next blog,

Jeff