Sunday Sermon: The Best Laid Plans
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Text: Proverbs 16:3
Series: Certain Truths for Uncertain Times
“I love it when a plan comes together!” You’ve heard that expression before; have you not? Most of the time it’s voiced by people who have seen life work out for their good in some way.
But while having a plan is something that virtually everyone has done at one time or another in their life, there are very, very few of us who have ever seen a plan come together just as we envisioned. In other words, there is so very little in life that actually goes “according to plan.”
Why is that the case? Part of it is because our planning always leans toward the more optimistic end of the spectrum. We never predict things like pandemics, or market plunges, or how standard practices might one day become obsolete. We like to think that everything will just keep getting better and better, which of course is a theologically impossible premise given the fallen nature of the world in which we live.
“But what is the alternative?” you ask. “Is it to just to carry on without a plan, flying by the seat of our pants, if you will?” No, that’s not a good plan either. None of us is good enough or smart enough or adaptable enough to deal with all the possibilities the future holds so that it makes better sense and shows better faith for us to be open to what God’s plans for our lives may be and how we might align our plans to it. Only then will we be certain that whatever lies ahead will be for our ultimate good. So counseled the writer of this Proverb that’s before us this morning.
The book of Proverbs, traditionally ascribed to King Solomon because of his reputation for being a wise king and the author of numerous proverbs, is a book that includes a host of pithy sayings, all gathered around the principle that “the fear of the LORD,” or one’s reverence of God, is “the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). That is to say that, in order to make it through this life that is marked by so much uncertainty and unpredictability, those who order their lives around God’s instruction will be the ones most likely to succeed.
This section of Proverbs marks a transition in the book, one in which there is much more attention directed to God’s role in everyday life. That’s an important point for us to embrace. God is not a detached deity, unconcerned about everyday affairs. God is instead invested in His creation and, most importantly, has a plan for His creation. And because the God who created us is a sovereign God, one who will never see His plan frustrated or thwarted, we will always do well to commit to Him our ways and plans and hopes and dreams.
The writer puts it this way: “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
What’s interesting to me about this passage is its flow. In other words, the passage moves from deeds to thoughts, from what you do to what you plan. That’s not normally how the process works; is it? We make a plan and then we work the plan. But that’s not what the writer of Proverbs is telling us is the best approach, the most faithful approach. The best and most faithful approach is to live on the basis of what God’s plan is for us and then to order our futures accordingly. Might this be why so many of our plans go awry and never amount to anything? God is an afterthought or in some cases an “add-on,” when as this Proverb reminds us, anything that does not begin with God has no chance of succeeding.
How many times in my life, both as a pastor and as a person, have I come up with a plan and after the fact asked God to bless it? My guess is that you’ve been guilty of the same thing. Whether what’s before us is a challenge or an opportunity, we analyze it and we strategize about it from multiple directions and once we’ve come up with a blueprint for action, we go before God asking God to find favor with it. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t be using the minds God gave us to plot a course for whatever’s before us. But I am suggesting that we employ our thinking submissively, respectfully, and as the writer of Proverbs would say, fearfully so that we do not become guilty of getting ahead of God. More times than not, whenever God’s people have missed God in the work God’s given them to do, it’s simply because they’ve gotten ahead of Him, moving too hastily and presumptuously in one direction, while God’s desire is to be leading them in an entirely different one. Have you found that to be the case in your life at one time or another? That is most definitely not a good place to be. Nothing ever works out when we get ahead of God.
Better to follow the counsel of the proverb. “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and (then) your plans will succeed.”
The word “commit” is of course the key word in this passage of Scripture. In the Hebrew it literally means “to roll” something over on God, something that is too heavy for you, something that is impossible for you to bear. In this case, you “roll over” upon God the destiny of your life and when God is in the lead and you are following His lead, it is only then that your thoughts and your plans and your purposes will have any chance of finding success.
Some years ago, Smithsonian magazine did a special feature on the “Frontiers of Innovation,” inventions and discoveries that made our mortal existence go so much more smoothly, one of which was of course the wheel. You would think that the wheel would have been one of the earliest inventions in human history, but according to the article, that was not the case. A host of other things like sewing needles and boats and musical instruments like the flute predated the invention of the wheel.
But around the fifth century BC, the wheelbarrow first appeared in ancient Greece, as humans figured out ways to transport heavy burdens, saving their backs and lightening their loads in the process. Imagine living back then and coming to the realization that you didn’t have to carry around rocks or dirt or downed trees or whatever people carried around in those days. Imagine the joy that would have come over you when you realized that you didn’t have to bear those loads in your own strength; you could roll them instead with the genius of the wheel.
Interestingly enough, it may have been around that time that people of faith first became aware of the carry-over to religious practice and how rolling over to God the headaches and heartaches of life would without question be the best way to handle them. But of course, the key question is, “Have you learned that lesson?” The real issue that is at stake is, “Have you discovered the difference that trusting your burdens to God can make in your everyday life?” “Have you come to see how the same God that rolled away the massive stone that had sealed Jesus’ tomb is capable of rolling away the burdens of your life for the same purpose – so that you may have life and have it more abundantly?”
I love the story of the young boy who one day was trying to lift a heavy stone his father had asked him to move, but for the life of him could not budge it. As his father came by to check on his son’s progress, he could see the boy’s futility and exasperation over it and after watching him for a moment, finally asked his son the question, which I would imagine got off with the boy a bit, “Are you using all your strength?” If I were in that situation, that would be the last thing I would want to hear. “Are you using all your strength?”
And when the boy, by now, cried out in a fit of frustration, “Yes, I am!” the father replied calmly, “No, you’re not. You haven’t asked me to help you.”
Remember that word the next time you find yourself facing something that is more than you can handle and then remember the promise of our Father in Heaven. “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and (then stand amazed at how) your plans will succeed.”