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We had a lovely sermon at church, the Book of James, the nature of planning, how our days are not promised. It was good stuff. And our reader board announced it all week with carefully laid out letters until the end where they would not fit because…..poor planning. Whether a happy accident or a moment of mischief, the irony, what is hidden on that reader board so often manages to capture the very nature of the problem.

Yep, that’s the church.

Full disclosure, I am a wounded and damaged planner, as in I have learned far too well the truth of the old adage, “Man plans and God laughs.” Too much planning on my part is sure to just create pre-emptive disappointment and frustration. I plan to spend time with the Lord everyday, and I plan to be at a few places during the week, but that’s the best I can manage.

However, I am keenly aware that this is no way to live, that at the very least we must have a dream, a long range vision of some kind, however vague. We need to look ahead at some future point and imagine where we would all like to be, and I am not just talking about heaven.

Somebody smart once taught me about Jesus in the temple, when He was lost and misplaced by His parents, when they finally found Him, He said, “Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business??” That’s it exactly, that’s a concept I try to walk with. We are Sons, the inheritors of a kingdom, our job is to be about the Father’s business. So rather than planning out our entire lives and asking for the Lord’s blessing on it all, try figuring out what the Father is up to and see how you can join in with Him. “Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”

I really love that. The person who gave me those words was busy being about the Father’s business, because those were the exact words I needed to hear, that was the Holy Spirit talking to me, affirming what He had already been talking to me about.

 

 

close up photo of raspberries cupcake

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