The greatest act of faith is to have a plan.
Dr. Myles Munroe
We all know we should do it – yet the task of mapping out the direction we want to take in life can seem so daunting. Still, the way how quickly time flies these days, it’s mandatory to have a plan, personal, business or otherwise, if not the years can fly by and then we wonder what we’ve really done over the last five years. I can scarcely imagine that it’s almost 10 years that I’ve been teaching. Ten years!!
I think that when we haven’t accomplished certain things in life, instead of looking at our current circumstances and how they may be less than ideal, it’s better to be reflective, and consider what we initially set out to do in order to achieve that thing. Too often we say we are planning to do something. But we aren’t really planning – we’re just thinking about it and hoping things work out. I know there are some people who did all the right things but still experienced one setback or another. For me, though, it’s often a case of not having specific targets to meet, i.e. not having a well laid-out plan, whether for my finances, my blog or anything else going on in my life.
Ah yes… my blog. I could think of a stream of terrible adjectives to describe my behaviour towards Merry Sole. However, I will consider what a wonderful thing it is that I am actually back, that Merry Sole has risen like a phoenix, and all the other relevant clichés. Blogging is a lot of work! I knew this before I started having done my research, but still! Note that I put ‘a lot of’ work and not ‘hard’ work. The truth is, I love writing (when I actually do it). But as much I enjoy it, if I don’t plan for it properly, most times it just doesn’t happen. And therein rests my shortcoming. It’s a piece of advice that I now whip out in a flash for anyone younger than myself who needs guidance in any particular area – “You’ve got to have a plan.” Of course, this is no earth-shattering revelation, but the profoundness of it really hit home when I found out just how true this is.
I didn’t have a well-prepared plan after finishing university to be honest. I had this feeling of entitlement (not the bratty kind, the more subtle one), that certain things were supposed to happen to or for me and that they’d most likely happen by a particular time. NOPE! Reality will then give anyone a stinging slap to the face when they realize that their dreams have not yet come to pass.
It seemed to me a big deal for God to stress that we should have a plan. After all, He is the Master Planner, and has plans already for us – He told Jeremiah as much in Jeremiah 29:11. Yet, we are made in the image of God, so if God plans, He wants us to plan too. Proverbs 16:3 says to commit your thoughts (or what you’re planning) to the Lord so that they may become established. You might ask, what if my plans aren’t God’s plans? Solomon must’ve been asked the same question, because he came back in verse 9 of the same chapter to say that even though a man (or woman) might make his own plans, God is the one who directs his path in achieving that plan. So God has a plan for your plan! Furthermore, God wants you to have a plan so that He can bless it.
I am really into the late Dr. Myles Munroe’s messages right now, and he said something that was by far the best thing I’d heard in a while. He said that the greatest act of faith is to have a plan. Wait a minute – you gotta read that again and let it sink in. The greatest act of faith is to have a plan. A plan is an outline of what is to come, and faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 12:1). Therefore, the plan is part of the evidence. A plan is made in faith that what is written down will become something that exists. Here is a good place to make note of the fact that the best plans are always written. God told Habakkuk (Hab. 2:2) to “write the vision down.”
Dr. Myles also said something else that was really profound. He said not to measure yourself by your circumstances, but by your thinking. With that being said, there is hope for Merry Sole, having been in existence for a full two years now (Happy belated birthday!). Despite struggling to post for months on end, I still have plans – yes, plans, not ideas, but plans. I am looking forward to a wonderful year, for Merry Sole and most certainly for myself. I’m actually excited. I prepared myself in advance mentally for being this age by telling myself, “I am not going to feel depressed or disappointed. I am going to be grateful and happy.” Lo and behold, that was effective, because while at times I do become mindful of where I haven’t reached or what I don’t have, overall I find that I dwell more so on what I’m doing to achieve what I want. I feel much better thinking of the actual present than of the present I wanted to be (which obviously doesn’t exist).
So here’s to being happy by choice, planning for the future and focusing on the present.
P.S. If you have a written plan already, have been actively working on it, praying about it, and just about everything else you could do, remember this – God said at the end of verse 3 in Hab. 2, “It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.” If God said it, then we say, “AMEN!”
Merry Sole 