The Better Plan?

Everyone lives by their life plan. You thought it. You live it. You own it. Even if you, as a free spirit insist that you have no plan, you still live by the ‘no plan’. You think it. You live it. You own it!

It is often said that God has a plan for our lives. If that is true which plan – my plan or God’s plan – is better to follow?

This is not a trick question. Those who don’t believe in God will answer ‘my personal plan is the best plan’ as it is the only plan. The believer will say ‘God’s plan is obviously the only plan that has lasting value’. One cannot improve on God!

The truth is that we all live by our own plan. The difference is how that plan comes into existence. The information that we digest is the foundation of our plan. Information creates the value structure.

The most influential information source we have are the people who surround us. What can you say about the company you keep? What are they reading? What are they watching? How do they spend their time? How do they value time? Compare how your friends use their time and how you use your time. Don’t be surprised if they are very similar. You might want to ask yourself this question: Are you satisfied with the results so far? Anything lacking? Are the results you have today the results you want to have five years from now? You cannot expect a different result if you continue thinking and acting as you do today. So what is ‘the plan?’ Is it your plan or the plan learned from the company you keep?

Here is a story of someone who changed plans. There is a character in the Bible who today remains a major figure in three world religions. This man was adopted into the wealthiest family in the world of his time. His early plan was to relish the wealth, riches, power and property that was his. He had the life that we work for and fantasize having.

At middle age he renounced the wealth and became the leader of a voluntarily-enslaved group of people. In time that people became a well respected nation and are still so today. The curious thing is that if this man had stayed wealthy we would NOT know anything about him today. We only know him because he recognized that God had a plan for his life. He initially resisted the plan but eventually came to realize that God’s plan offered more than his plan. God’s plan became his plan.

History suggests time and again that belief in God has its value. Many would say that life without belief has little or no value. Those who profess a faith of substance are remembered. People of substantive faith have major impact on the world in addition to living a meaningful, satisfying personal life. There seems to be a teachable story here. Can you describe your life plan with such meaning? Wouldn’t you like to?