Plan Ahead

 

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” (Benjamin Franklin).

J. M. W. Turner spent hours contemplating nature. He once spent a whole day sitting on a rock throwing pebbles into a lake. That evening his fellow painters showed him their sketches and chided him for having accomplished nothing. He replied, “I have done this at least: I have learned how a lake looks when pebbles are thrown into it.” In the following years, none of his fellow-students could ever paint ripples as well as Turner did. We miss major life opportunities through poor preparation.

Inadequate planning doomed Napoleon at Waterloo. Before sending his crack Imperial Guard galloping into the fray, the Emperor had failed to observe a dip in the road between his army and the English. By contrast, the Duke of Wellington had noted it, and hid sharpshooters there to cut down the unsuspecting French as they charged. Napoleon lost Waterloo. His fate and that of Europe were sealed in part by an unseen dip in the road, and by a lack of planning to elude its danger.

Christians are commanded not to boast about tomorrow, because we do not know what a day may bring forth. And we recognize that the Lord is free to change our plans. But knowing that the Lord can redirect us is not an invitation to sit back, neglect planning, and let an unplanned future simply roll over us. For example, Proverbs urges a wise sequence for those hoping to start their own families—“ Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.” That is, be sure you have a job/training/means to support yourself first. In this and so many other facets of life “the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”

Of one future event we can all be certain. Someday each of us will stand before the Lord—alone; with no parent, sibling, friend, pastor, teacher, or anyone else to help or explain for us. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”  On that day God “will render to each one according to his works.”

Now is the time to Plan Ahead for that day—to make sure that we have called upon the Lord Jesus to save and advocate for us, and to invest significant energy in knowing the Lord and making him known.