Adjusting Your Plans

Nearly two weeks into the new year and the newness has worn off. That new year smell has faded, and you have probably settled into the same old routines. Why bother with fad-ish resolutions or goals for the new year? After all, there is life to be busy with. But is it the life you want? Are you finding yourself frustrated at the lack of accomplishment in your life?

Breathe.

Sometimes, the best way forward is to stop moving and take a look around. Are you missing something? Do you need to continue moving in the same direction? Is the resistance you are feeling positive or negative resistance? Positive resistance is the feeling you might have if you were breaking free from a restraint. As you strain against the bonds, you feel hope and the sense of anticipation at the coming freedom. Negative resistance is that feeling that keeps you from straining at the bonds that hold you back. Negative resistance says, "What is the sense of trying, things never change."

Sometimes we put too much pressure on the decisions and moments in our life. You hear of an individual who hit a turning point in life or a person who had a make-or-break moment. These concepts leach into our lives, and shape our thinking about what comes next.

Let's say you decide to lose weight. You struggle with comfort eating, poor self-esteem, inexperience with exercise (which often leads to injury), poor eating habits, etc. Thus the decision to lose weight, then becomes your "make-or-brake" moment. You throw all of your hopes on this one, single, solitary, in-the-moment decision--and you expect it to bear the weight of that commitment.

And then, somebody brings donuts to work or invites you to a dinner. You go to the gym only to experience physical pain because you didn't quite know how to use that one machine, and now you need a few days to recover. Your make-or-brake moment cracks under the pressure, and you console yourself with a pint of ice cream. It seems you were destined to be fat.

The real issue isn't what you want to accomplish or even why you want to accomplish it. The real issue is that your plans are often frustrated because you place to much emphasis on the wrong things. Simply put, while there are make-or-brake moments, there are also constant opportunities to either change your course or recommit to it.

People give up too easily because they think to narrowly about big things. They want change to be instantaneous. They want to move from A to Z without ever touching on the rest of the alphabet. All of this can be applied to discipleship. There is a sense in which people fell that spiritual growth should be automatic. They think a believer should go from sinner to saint in a twinkling of an eye. This view takes our justification (the legal declaration by God that we are right with him) and confuses it with our sanctification (the process by which the Spirit brings that righteousness to bear fruit).

Whether we are at the gym working off the last five years of Christmas cookies (and other stuff) or reading our Bible for encouragement, we need to recognize that there are a thousand make-or-break decisions throughout our day. No one wrong decision can derail our progress if we are quick to repent and confess and correct course. If we put too much pressure on one moment, it will break our momentum. But if we recognize that each success will only bring us success if we keep building on it and each failure will only lead to failure if we give, then we move forward.

If you make a wrong turn in your day, make a u-turn. If things aren't going the way you planned, adjust your plan (and maybe your expectations--that's a post for another day). God has promised not to give up on you, so you aren't allowed to give up on you, either.

The Stewardship of Time

Time management experts claim that lack of organization is a key time waster. Lack of planning is another key time waster. Disorganization and poor planning go hand in hand. Disorganized people usually fly by the seat of their pants, while people who plan tend to be more organized.

Wasting time isn't just an educational or employment problem. It is a spiritual problem. We are to make the most of the time God has given us. We are called to make the most of every opportunity. If, however, we squander the precious few moments given to us in the vapor of a life, we are poor stewards indeed.

The good steward ship of time means that we must make plans. Someone once said, "If we fail to plan, we plan to fail." The Bible encourages planning. We are not to plan presumptuously as if our planning obligated God to ensure their success. We should seek the Lord's will as we plan, and ask faithful believers for their advice.

Developing a routine is important to establishing a rhythm to life. Organization and planning help to sync us to that rhythm. Disorganization and poor planning through us out of sync. I'm not suggesting that there is no room for spontaneity or flexibility, but approaching life with a careless attitude is dangerous.

God has given us a stewardship. We are stewards of all he has given us, including time. To make the most of it, we need to carefully plan and organize our time. If we do that, we increase our odds of making the most of the time we have been given.

With these truths in mind, what suggestions would you make to help someone become a better steward of time?

Boasting About Tomorrow

"Don't boast about tomorrow, for you don't know what a day might bring" (Prov. 27:11, HCSB).

This proverb is urging us not to praise our tomorrows.  Although little orphan Annie might bet her bottom dollar, there is no guarantee that the sun will come up tomorrow, and even if it does there is no guarantee we will be alive to see it. 

Some people boast in their tomorrow by laying out elaborate plans. They fill their calendar with projects, goals, to do lists, and deadlines. When questioned, they can layout the next 15 years for the interviewer. They have it all figured out. They believe themselves to be the masters of their own destiny.

Other people boast in their tomorrow by putting everything off until later. Their motto is, "Never do today what can be put off until tomorrow." They muse, "Some day, some day." But someday never comes, because tomorrow is always on the horizon. They also believe they are the masters of their destiny, at least as soon as they can get to it.

Most of us assume tomorrow. We think and plan as if tomorrow is just around the corner. But none of us are promised tomorrow. As James says,

Come now, you who say, "'Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit."  Your don't even know what tomorrow will bring--what your life will be!  For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil (James 4:13-16, HCSB).

Planning has a place, but planning that does not give attention to seeking God's will is wasted.  Mapping our our future, without giving priority to God is destined to fail. Yes, it might succeed for a time, but judgment delayed is not judgment denied. We will all stand before God and give an account for our stewardship of time. The reward will not go to those with the best plans, but to those who have planned best.  That is, those who want to see their plans honored by God had better make his plans their own.

Some may read this and assume that there is no reason to plan at all, but that assumption misses the mark. James doesn't say all planning is evil, he says planning that leaves God out of the mix is boasting, and that boasting is evil. Seek God, then make your plans. In what ways does God what to grow you? In what ways has God blessed you? What are you talents and interests? What does God's Word say about the path you are taking? 

Commit your way to the Lord, and he will establish the plans of your heart. He will guide you. Commit to the plans he gives you.  Realize that their is a reason that you can only see so far down the road.  Keep the big picture in mind, as you face the day before you.  No matter how you try, you can't live twenty years in the span of a day.  As Jesus said, "Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt. 6:34, HCSB).

A Plan for Improving One's Prayer Life

I am preparing for the coming new year by thinking through some changes I want to make in my life.  Although there are several areas I hope to improve in this year, there are two critical areas I plan on attacking this year.  Those two areas are my health (my weight in particular) and my prayer life.  While I have a vague notion as to how I will address my health issues, I'm not quite certain as to how I will approach that situation yet.  I'll have more to say about that issue in the days and weeks ahead.

However, I do have some idea how I plan on improving my prayer life.  I have been gathering resources for months (years), and I'm currently working on a plan to improve my prayer life during the current year.

First, I want to learn about more about prayer and how to pray more effectively.  I plan on reading The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer.  I hope to read Isaac Watts' A Guide to Prayer this year too.

Next, I am working on a prayer calendar that will help pray through the church each month.  I am borrowing the system from Brian Croft from Practical Shepherding. You can view the article here.  I will also be praying daily for lost people that I know.

In addition, I am going to be working my way through other resources so that I am continually praying for missionaries at home and abroad, for the persecuted church, and for unbelievers.  One of the resources I will be using this year is the book, Operation World.  I will also be using the following websites to inform my prayer life: The Prayer Connection (NAMB); Prayer (IMB); Operation Bended Knee (KBC); and Voice of the Martyrs.

The final step in my plan is simply setting aside time each day to pray.  I want prayer to become an integral part of my life.

I plan on keeping you posted on my progress.  I hope that you will find these resources helpful, and I hope you will pray for me throughout the coming year.  May God bless you and keep you.

Keep Your Feet

In the movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo is quoted as saying, "It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet...there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."  Life is like just that way, it is easy to be swept away by the moods of a moment.

There are always destinations in life that are more necessary or more exciting.  There are place we would rather be.  It is easy to get distracted, and find yourself a thousand miles from where you intended to be.

The trick isn't staying in doors.  The trick is keeping your feet.  Determine where you are headed, and what needs to be done to get there.  You can't let wonderlust, boredom, or a sense of urgency, sweep you off the road you have determined to travel.

Sometimes, we miss a greater adventure, because we aren't engaged in the one we're on, we're dreaming about the one we're not.  Life presents a multitude of opportunities to grow and learn.  Experiences abound on every side.  It is just up to us to seize the moment, and enjoy where we are.

The next time you are tempted to veer off course, give thought to your feet.  Why are you on the path you are on?  Why do you want to change it?  Stay your course and move forward in the Lord.  Take your journey, don't let it take you.

Thoughts on Planning

I remember listing to Toby Keith’s “How Do You Like Me Now” when I was in high school and thinking, I want to big someday.  I think most of us have dreams of bigger and better things.  We want to become bestselling authors, famous singers/musicians, astronauts, high paid brokers, powerful politicians, or something else.  Unfortunately, most of us never see our dreams come to fruition.

There are several reason dreams fail; sometimes they fail because of a fear of failure, a lack of determination, an unwillingness to work hard, and a lack of careful planning. In this post, I want to focus on planning.

Goal setting has never been one of my strong points.  Even when I dreamed of being “big” someday, I never really thought about what that would look like.  I knew that I meant I wanted to be successful, but not necessarily in what way.  I knew I wanted to write, but I didn’t have any plans.

When we don’t plan, we fail to see the trees for the forest.  We have to start eat task with the right mindset.  The old question goes, “What’s the best way to eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a time.”  We have to take a larger task, and break it into smaller, measurable goals.

When you look at someone who is successful in any given field, what most often fills our vision is their success, not their struggle.  We assume that they got to where they are by luck, magic, or divine intervention.  We don’t see the difficult journey that brought them to where they are. We need to focus on the process that brought them to success which often includes planning, hard work, and perseverance; not just the end results.

When we make a plan, it helps us to track our progress.  It is easy to see if you are moving in the right direction.  When it comes to planning, it isn't much help to say something like, "I want to lose weight." Instead, we need to be specific, and say something like, "I would like to lose 35 pounds by my birthday."  Now you have something to aim at: 35 pounds, and a time frame to work in: the amount of time until your birthday.

We need to be realistic with our planning.  We need to be aware of what we can and what we cannot control.  If I say, "I will publish a book by the time I am 40," I am not being realistic, because I don't know if anyone will publish my book (supposing I wrote one).  But if a person says, "I am going to write a manuscript about  such-and-such, and submit it to five publishing houses this year," that is realistic.

My final thought on planning is this: don't just plan, act on it.  Once you have a plan, commit to follow it through.  Enlist the help of your family and friends to help see it through.  Let them see your goals, and let them help you refine them.  Show them your timetables and deadlines, and give them permission to check up on your progress.  Dream a dream, and work to live it out.

Planning Spiritual Growth

"The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty" (Prov. 21:5, ESV).

Many have misunderstood James 4:13-17 to say that we shouldn't plan.  In reality, James is warning against the kind of planning that leaves God out of the mix.  Solomon reminds us that diligence in planning and working reap an abundant harvest.  Just as diligence in the material realm produces material abundance, diligence in the spiritual realm produces spiritual abundance. If we want to see spiritual fruit our lives, we have to have a plan, and work it with diligence.  As we plan our spiritual growth, we need to make sure that we aren't planning the wrong things, that we plan with the help of others, and that we submit ourselves to God's plan.

Solomon says, "Whoever plans evil will be called a schemer" (Prov. 24:8, see also Prov. 6:18; 16:30).  The schemes of the wicked will never bear the kind of fruit they desire.  The end of all their schemes is trouble.  We cannot fake out God.  He sees through the most elaborate plans of man with ease.  As we plan, we need to plan in light of God's revealed Word, and not contrary to it.  If we don't, we'll only destroy ourselves.

If we are going to plan our spiritual growth, we will need to do more than avoid scheming.  Solomon advises, "Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed" (Prov. 15:22; see also Prov. 20:18).  Failure to seek the advise of godly people throws a wrench in our plans.  Human beings were not designed to operate alone.  The Lord designed us to need social interaction.  When we seek the counsel of others, it sharpens our thinking, gives us insights that, most likely, we would not have otherwise gained, and it can generate a network of supportive encouragement.  We need to make our plans with the help of others.

The counsel of wise and godly friends is invaluable, but we must also seek counsel from the Lord.  As we pursue our spiritual growth, we have to plan with the will of God in mind.  Solomon warns, "Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand" (Prov. 19:21; See also Prov. 16:1, 3, 9).  Ultimately, God's will is the only one that will prevail.  David planned a temple for the Lord with great passion and in great detail, but it was not his to build.  Sometimes we have great dreams we want to see come to fruition, but it is another who picks the fruit.  The saying, "Lord willing," must flow naturally and freely from our hearts.  Our goal in planning our spiritual growth should be to glorify the Lord.

We must become the kind of people who work and plan with diligence.  The principles that guide our work life or our hobbies can and must be applied to spiritual ends.  If we want to get in better shape physically, we don't just join a gym and then stay home on the couch.  No, we have to go and exercise.  Each day we go a little farther on the treadmill, add another flight on the stair-master, or add additional weights to our routine.  If we want to get better at our job, we have to learn additional skills, and hone them to perfection.  It is therefore safe to conclude that the desire to grow spiritually can only be accomplished as we learn and practice spiritual truth.

We must approach our spiritual growth plan with a simple formula: hard work + determination + perseverance = success.  We need to plan the right things with the help of godly people for the glory of the Lord.  As we do that, we will reap an abundant harvest.  With our faith firmly anchored in the work of Christ, we take hold of the means that God has appointed to bring about spiritual growth, and we labor to the glory of the Lord.  We do what God has told us to do, but we trust him to bring about the result.  With that in mind, what kind of spiritual growth plan do you have?  What ways will you use to draw closer to the Lord in the coming days? weeks? months? years?  Do you have a plan?  Are you going to follow it with diligence?

A 1000 Different Directions

Have you ever found yourself running in a thousand different directions? You have family and work and church and hobbies and friends and so on. It may be that you have several projects to work on or several books you want to read. How do you find time to do it all?

Common wisdom today would suggest multitasking. Take three or four books and begin to read them. Or take three or four projects and begin hammering out the work. However, I fear that multitasking doesn't really work. Except for the rare individual that can actually focus on multiple projects at once most people's work suffers from divided attention. Take for instance that woman who cut you off this morning because she was curling her hair, putting on her make-up, and talking on her cell phone while steering the car with her knees. Or the guy who held up traffic because he was typing his report on his laptop while he read his paper and drank his coffee cruising down the highway at 45 mph. Or the student who can't read his homework without listening to music and watching t.v., but who can't remember what the chapter was about.

The key is organization. We all have to multitask a bit. None of us can be solely focused on just one thing, unless we only have one responsibility. A person with a family, a job, a hobby, and a pet is going to be pulled in more than one direction. The key is coming up with a plan for organization and implementation. When you have multiple responsibilities, there are a few options you can take. First, you can neglect some of your responsibilities and focus all of your attention in one area (for example, a workaholic who is never at home). Second, you could cut back on some of your responsibilities (for example, a person who gives their pet away because they don't have time to care for them). Finally, you can combine the best of working hard with working smart. You can come up with a plan that allows you to have your cake and eat it too.

Getting life organized might mean we cut back on some of our responsibilities (like passing on a promotion to have more time with your family), but it also means having a plan of attack that allows us to whittle away that the "to-do" list of our daily existence. We need to look at the day coming up and map out a strategy. What is most urgent? If we have something big to do, can it be broken down into smaller, more easily managed chunks? Do we have an action plan, that will help us complete the task before our deadline? If your goal is something smaller, like reading a book, can you find thirty minutes a day to dedicate to the task (please not while your driving)?

I'm not an expert on organization. However, on the days that I have a plan more seems to get accomplished. Whether you have a stack a books that you want to read or a building to construct, you need a plan of action. You have to realistically determine the amount of time it will take to accomplish the task and the amount of time you have to give to the task. Then break it down into smaller bite size chunks. Instead of wondering how you are going to read a 500 page book focus on getting through a section or chapter. Then move on to the next section or chapter, and before long you will find the book is finished.

It comes down to this: What are your priorities? What do you wish to accomplish? What needs to be done? and What are the steps to accomplish it? When you are home playing with the kids (or grandkids) focus on that. When you are at work or church use the dedicated time to focus on the projects with which you are faced. Just focus on one thing at a time, and eventually most of the important stuff will get done.