To plan or not to plan, that is the question!
Sometime ago a friend and I headed to a meeting and stepped into an elevator, still chatting. We stood there engrossed in conversation waiting to be delivered to our destination. Finally, when the elevator wasn’t moving, we glanced at one another thinking that perhaps it was malfunctioning. Sadly the malfunction rested with us. We burst out laughing as we realized that neither of us had pushed the requisite button. Talk about missing the obvious.
Sometime ago a friend and I headed to a meeting and stepped into an elevator, still chatting. We stood there engrossed in conversation waiting to be delivered to our destination. Finally, when the elevator wasn’t moving, we glanced at one another thinking that perhaps it was malfunctioning. Sadly the malfunction rested with us. We burst out laughing as we realized that neither of us had pushed the requisite button. Talk about missing the obvious.
As you can discern I am basically a “now” person. There’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting or walking with a friend and catching up on life enjoying a stimulating conversation and mostly ignoring anything else going on. Yet, surprisingly, God sometimes calls people like me to lead in His kingdom work. That presents some unique challenges. While it can be difficult for thoughtful and forward thinking folks to imagine, thinking ahead just doesn’t come naturally to me. Yet it is needed in leadership to maintain clarity and focus. Remember how Nehemiah carefully considered the conditions in Jerusalem before stepping into the leadership role to which God was calling him.
We have an interesting contrast regarding these things in scripture. On the one hand Jesus admonishes us, “So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”Matthew 6:34 While on the other hand God instructs us “to number our days and apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Ps. 90:12 KJVIt’s that looking ahead piece the presents “now people” like me with some unique challenges. T. M. Moore in his blog has an excellent downloadable article on time and it’s relationship to wisdom that offers a good perspective on living every individual day. God is the only one who knows the future, and it is dangerous to plan as though we have control of the outcomes.
That’s the danger we face when we do strategic planning and set out goals and purposes. We need to submit those plans to God’s overarching plan, willing to hold them in open hands day by day. Perhaps this is the point James is making when he writes, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town and spend a year there and do business and make a profit. You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? For you are a puff of smoke that appears for a short time and then vanishes. You ought to say instead, “If the Lord is willing, then 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 NET.
As leaders we need to look ahead for the sake of leading with wisdom, but we must be cautioned not to take control of those plans as though they supersede the progressively revealed will of God day by day. That in itself requires a lot of wisdom.
Gwynne Johnson
Gwynne Johnson currently serves on the Board of Entrust, Inc., an international education and training mission where she authored the Entrust curriculum, Developing a Discerning Heart. She recently served as Co-Chair of the training project, Christian Women in Partnership, Russia and as Senior Director of Women's Ministry at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Gwynne has a M.A. in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She currently lives in Huntsville, Texas with her husband of 58 years, Don. She works part-time in her daughter and granddaughter's bakery "The Best Box Ever," where she gets paid in cookies.
