ALIGNING OUR PLANS

In the prophecy scene of the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, an old, blind man is pumping a manual cart on the railroad, with the three protagonists riding along, asking him questions.  In one of his answers, he says, “ You seek a great fortune.  You will find a fortune, though it will not be the fortune you seek.  But first, you must travel…a long a difficult road.  A road fraught with peril.”    I expect every Christ-follower has been guilty of having plans that aren’t aligned with God’s will, of traveling that long, perilous road.  If you are like me, it happens too often.  I’ve heard all my life that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.  When that happens, it should be a lesson learned.  Seeking His will through prayer and meditation on Scripture before acting on our own plan is wisdom in action.  

The Israelites traveled that perilous road when they chose idols over God.  They were seeking fool’s gold when the real thing was right in front of them, advising them that they were, in not so many words, insane.  The consequences of the foolish plans upon which they acted was exile and captivity, separated from their own people and from God.  After suffering the consequences and hearing their pleas, God relented and brought them back together.  We tend to pick on Biblical characters as their failures are an open book but what if ours were?  Are we really any different?  We all can learn from their mistakes as well as our own.  As with the Israelites, it hurts when we fall.  But God hears our pleas just as He did the Israelites’ pleas.  And He is there to pick us up, brush us off and love us with His eternal love.

Living in this world, we are traveling a long, difficult road, one fraught with peril.  While we can’t avoid the pitfalls, we can align our plans with His will.  Spending time with Him in prayer and meditating on His Scripture will inform us in how to do just that.