How Ought We to Plan?

Since I was a youngster, I've enjoyed the game of Chess. My uncle taught it to me when he came home from prison. I think I was around 10 years old at the time. Chess is a cool game, because all you really need to learn is how the pieces can move. Once you know that, the strategy part is up to you. Doesn't that sound like a great game? Yeah, that's part of why I like it so much. As you begin to learn the moves you can make, you simultaneously learn which moves your opponent can make. This is where a healthy dose of forethought comes in. You have to anticipate the moves your opponent will make, in response to your move. Eventually, that will stretch to a point where you can anticipate the opponent's move farther and farther removed from where the game currently is. That is, you can and should be able to think 3-5 moves ahead at a moderate level of play. Experts, or masters, can see even further ahead (some 10 or more moves and various scenarios ahead). Wow, right?!?!!? Some of you already are asking, "what is your point, man???" My answer is this: since I began playing Chess, I have been taught and have practiced a certain type of planning ahead. Planning as if the only things to consider were my moves, and how others would respond to them. In Chess, there is no "what if I'm not able to move after my opponent does?" In other words, there is no thought that I may die before this game ends. There is simply the assumption that I move, then he, then I move, then he. Therefore, my plans during the game were based on the assumption that "no circumstance will stop this game, save Checkmate or Stalemate." Certainly not something as sudden and final as, say, death. Under such conditions, good planning ahead ALWAYS netted the desired result-a good game. This type of blind foresight, if you will, was seen as a noble characteristic among my friends and family, because I was able to anticipate what would come next on the Chessboard of life. I was ALWAYS asking the "what if this happens" question. I would answer myself, "if that happens, then I'll do this, or that or the other." When one move didn't prove fruitful, plans B, C, and D were always on deck and ready to be implemented. Never a thought of the potential inability to enact the plans of my own mind; but Chess and life are not the same.

PLAN, BUT BASED ON WHAT??

Now, I am fully aware that not only Chess players have a penchant for posing "what-ifs," and then planning "accordingly." According to what, though, is the important piece. If one is making plans based on a "what if," that's akin to warming up a bottle today for a baby that has yet to be born. I'm not here to speak about the futility of "what ifs" today though (that entry is in the works), but the caution we need to have in planning ahead. There are parameters to our forethought, that if not heeded, can lead to misappropriation of God's time.

In Chess, depending soley on your own knowledge, understanding and foresight could win you the game. In life (as a believer particularly), it could cost you dearly. The Scriptures are replete with warnings about planning as if we control our own lives. Take a look at this passage:

Jas 4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"--

Jas 4:14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Jas 4:15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." Here, James is not condemning the making of plans, but the making of plans without regard for what the will of God is concerning our life itself. Chess player or not, we can all acknowledge that some planning is a part of a conscientious life. Afterall, we all make grocery lists, budgets, and use our DVR's to record what we PLAN to watch later :). The question is, do we realize during our planning that every plan WE make is contingent on the preordained plans our LORD has for us? I know, I know, you say "Lord willing" before every statement about your future, right? And if so, what exactly do you mean by that? In the James passage, the point is made that we are just mists that appear and then vanish. The times I have said "Lord willing," I have meant something like this: "Lord willing, I will DO this or that," or "Lord willing I will be in such and such a place on time." James is dealing with the frailty of LIFE itself, however. My position has always been (before now), that I have plans and if the Lord wills, my plans will come to fruition. LOL. What about you? James is stating that we ought to say "If the Lord wills, I WILL LIVE........" Wowzers!! Now that's certainly different than simply saying, if it's the Lord's will, I'll do what I want to do. Our lives, and the length or brevity of them is in God's hands alone, and so we ought not to cease planning; but begin to plan more soberly. It has been asked many times, "If you knew you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do?" In light of our individual answers to that question, perhaps our planning ahead should take on a different complexion? How would your plans change if you knew how long the Lord has for you on this Earth? Well, we may not know to the date how long we have, but this we do know: Our lives are but mists, vapors that will certainly vanish. How then ought we to plan?

PLAN AS IF WE KNOW OUR TIME IS SHORT:

If we prioritized our plans around the promised brevity of life, what would the new priority list look like? I have taken it upon myself to jot down a few things I'd like to do as a believer, based on the 24 hour principle: (Not in any particular order of importance)

1. I would want to clearly share the Gospel with all friends I could contact ASAP.

2. I would capitalize fully on every spare moment to love my wife and point my children Godward. This would include sharing the Gospel with them with both urgency and love.

3. I would get things in order in such a way that my wife would know where all finances stand, and the proper way to handle all affairs of the home that are currently under my care.

4. I would call many of my loved ones just to see how they were, tell them I love them, and give them the Gospel.

As I said, this is just a few things I'd like to do. As I look at this list, I grieve because only a few of these things are top of mind daily for me now. What does this say?

As I come to truly believe the Scriptures about the shortness of my time here, I should begin to seriously contemplate my priorities. Should there be this great chasm between how I plan now, and how I would plan if my time were limited? Surely some difference is to be expected, as we don't plan like we will actually die tomorrow. Yet, the knowledge that time does not belong to us to begin with should cause us to delight in God's mercy. His mercies are new every morning, and that partly because it's only His mercy that allows us to rise. It is the Lord's will that we are here today, and we will only be here tomorrow if it is His will we be. May I start my days now recognizing that all that I accomplish I owe to Him, for it is He who gives me life. May I plan as a man who knows that this life is not my own and that my chief end is to Glorify God. May we all begin to rethink our priorities in light of eternity as opposed to the temporal. Then, as Paul to the Romans,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

May our Lord by His Spirit grant me the grace to do the same.

Grace and Peace