“If you want to hear God laugh, just tell him your plans.”
I don’t like that saying. First, I think it is a little too pithy and cute. When our plans fall apart, it doesn’t make me feel better to imagine God laughing at me. Second, I don’t think God ever laughs at our hardships. He laughs with derision at the attempts of his enemies to thwart him (Psalm 2). He delights in his people and their praise (Psalm 149.) He boasts about our faith (Job). Yet I cannot think of one time when God had fun messing with his own people. Finally, I don’t like that saying because it hits too close to home. I like my plans. I think they’re good plans. I want to follow through with them. I want to see them succeed. It makes my life easier when things go as planned. Sometimes my heart aches for the plans that fall apart.
My heart isn’t aching, but today was a little frustrating. My grass needed to be mowed last week. The orchard where the chickens scratch about is resembling a jungle. The forecast has been all rain from now until Easter (not that I will have time to mow next week anyway.) This morning the sun appeared. I had a good productive morning already. I made some service preparations. I taught a child. I did some studying. I walked the dogs (in the rain), so when the sun came out,I saw my chance. Time to mow.
It always takes me longer to get out of the house, I had to find work pants, water, sunflower seeds, headphones, boots, church keys, and car keys. I don’t know why that takes so long, but it does. The mower needs a new battery. (I’m not complaining, since it is really nice that I get to use it in the first place. I planned to jump it with my truck. The ignition is jammed and won’t turn. After fighting it for a few minutes, I decided to use the other car. After all this, I only made it about ¼ through the work before Oregon did its thing. Wet and a little cranky, I put the lawn mower away and got cleaned up to do my normal work, as I ate my lunch, the sun reappeared. I don’t think God was laughing at me and my plans, but I do know my lovely bride was.
That is just one of hundreds of every day examples of the plans we make and what becomes of them. Often the interruption is even more frustrating. Speaking of interruptions, I think it is safe to say no one’s year is going as planned. Vacations are cancelled. (I don’t have high hopes for my own, scheduled in June.) Flights are grounded. School children are home. Colleges have moved online. Medical procedures are being postponed. Stores are closed. Projects have been put on hold. Easter is only a week away but instead of planning for a breakfast and a joyfully robust service, I am arranging schedules so that I can at least see the people the Lord has entrusted to me and serve them the meal the Lord has given them to eat. When we will be able to meet together fully, no one knows. Our lives are in limbo. Our plans are shattered, and we don’t know enough about tomorrow to fit those pieces back together into anything useful.
I’m not laughing. No one is. We are still in the early stages of shock at how quickly our lives got turned upside down. As every new deadline passes, as every plan falls away, as milestones are missed, as insecurity grows, as money gets tight, our plans are going to look feebler and more foolish. The Lord isn’t laughing.
I am not going to tell you to look on the bright side; however, we can all learn from this. Jesus told a parable about a man who made his plans. He had a big harvest. He built his barns, and then he was ready to sit back and enjoy life, but his life was cut short. (Luke 12:16-21) Instead of making plans, God gives us the blessings of each day to use wisely for us and for others. Even in the limited lives we are living now, we have so much to use. We have our time for family, for friends, for prayers, for encouragement, for study, and for praise. Now is not the time to sit back and wait until you can plan for tomorrow. It is good to do those projects you have put off. It is good to get reacquainted with those who share your roof. It is good to learn to appreciate your daily bread, even if it becomes the daily beans.
As the rain poured down on my lawn mowing aspirations, I thought of James chapter 4, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit.’ You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Indeed, it is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.” In a way, nothing has changed with this stay at home order and the viral threat. We never knew what day our lives would end. We don’t know if this virus will touch any of us or even anyone near to us. We can make long term plans, but tomorrow is out of our hands. “Instead, it is better for you to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live, and we will do this or that.’” What relief that is! Forget about your control! Forget about your plans! Live in his!
Right now, everyone has a theory about what the next few weeks and months may look like. Some paint a dire picture, others believe this is all an overreaction. Everyone wants a plan, a plan for the medical needs, a plan for the economy, and a plan for us to get back to our lives. Maybe in this case, God does laugh. He laughs not because we are struggling, but because we think we know. Even with all our charts and data, even with the best experts in the world trying to solve this puzzle, we know so little. Every reasonable expert I have listened to says exactly that: we don’t know enough. “But right now, you are boasting in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So, for the one who knows the right thing to do and doesn’t do it, this is sin.” We all have the right thing to do. Love your neighbor (yes, even if that means maintaining a safe distance for the time being.) We have work God has put into our hands. This interruption is not the time for lounging around the house binging Netflix, or wallowing in self-pity, or worrying in panicked fear. Trust the Lord. Your plans might be ruined, but his never are.
Well, the sun is back out, but I don’t think I will have the time to mow the grass today. (Maybe Thursday?) I guess some ruined plans can be worth a laugh. In fact, for me, for all who trust in God, your Savior, all our ruined plans will one day be worth a laugh, because we know our God’s plan. His plan brought his Son to a cross. His plan raised him up on the third day. His plan is to gather all his people to himself forever, maybe, just maybe, my plans aren’t so vital in comparison.