Planning for the Road Ahead
- Pastor Michael Kennedy
- Apr 26, 2015
- 7 min read
Job 23:10-11 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.
What is your Mission? Your plan?
“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”
If you want to be successful at any endeavor, then you must spend some time planning or preparing.
Some people might argue that its best to “fly by the seat of your pants”, but I would argue that this even requires a modicum of planning.
Years ago, my parents would often travel, and enjoy just hitting the open road. When asked “Where are you going?” they might respond simply with “North East.” They would get on the road and when they see something of interest, they will turn the car in that direction and follow a new road to adventure. However, their trip does require a small amount of planning. After all, what is the desired outcome of their excursion? Fun and togetherness, mixed with the chance to get away and see new things. They have to decide which direction to travel, what to take with them, when to return, and how long they will drive each day. Had they not planned for the financial aspect of the trip, they may not have the money to even get back home.
I remember the summer between my 10th grade and 11th grade years, that my parents, two younger sister and I took off for a trip to Savanah, GA, which was a few hours’ drive to the south east of our home. We arrived in Savanah and saw the sights for a few hours. Before my sisters and I knew what had happened, we were on the road north, towards Charleston, sc. Before the rip was over, we had traveled to Baltimore, MD, before heading home.
As a teacher, I am required to have lesson plans.
ensures direction
helps all those involved to see that we are headed towards a set goal.
As an Army Veteran, I can tell you that the military is all about making a plan and following that plan.
From the day that you enter the service you begin to learn that there are certain ways of doing certain things, and you’ve probably been doing them wrong your whole life until the drill sergeant sets you straight.
From day 1, you find that someone has devised a plan for every move that you make:
from how you dress
how you walk
how you talk
how you conduct yourself.
Life, in general is this way
Rules for every little thing that we do
From how to brush your teeth
how to make a withdrawal, at the bank
There are rules and plans
plans for rules
rules for plans in every aspect of life.
Here’s a Thought for you: Why is it that some parents try to raise their children with little or no rules yet expect them to be successful adults?
In life, where can we find success that we didn’t first formulate a plan?
How do we expect to complete our lives with no plan and yet arrive at a successful conclusion?
Life is not a wagon wheel. It is a tree.
C.S. Lewis’ “The Great Divorce”
“We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision.”
how do you have a plan if the road keeps suddenly changing?
a plan that is much larger than the road itself.
I don’t have to plan for each fork in the road if I plan for the overall journey.
If I take a “wild hair” road trip and “just go where the wind and the road take me” I could decide on a few rules of travel.
I could say that in the event of a fork in the road, I will always go right.
I could flip a coin, or do 1 potato, 2 potato.
I could even refer to a road map, to ensure I am headed toward my destination.
As I travel the journey of my life, I can decide that all along the road, when I reach a point of decision, that I will just chance it, or I’ll refer to the directions that I have been given.
Here’s a thought: We may think that the journey is difficult to navigate. We may not understand why we have to go the way we are going. If you were to fly in an airplane, above your intended route, you would see the way much clearer.
I spoke with a young man, a while back, who was going through quite a lot of turbulence, in his life, and he reminded me of something that I already knew:
He said that he felt that God works something like a GPS.
This is true. God has a plan for you to follow, in order to get you from where you are to him.
Along the way we sometimes loose sight of our destination due to our fixation on our temporary surroundings.
When we get our minds back on our journey, we find that we have taken a wrong road and gotten off track.
Just like our GPS voice, God is faithful to recalculate our journey from our present location.
Sometimes that involves backtracking to where we made a wrong turn and starting from there.
Sometimes that is not feasible and we have to start from a new point.
Although it isn’t the ideal place, or the location that he would desire for us, it is where we are and he leads us out of there and back on track.
Again I quote Lewis: “I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot "develop" into good. Time does not heal it.”
So…When I come to a point of decision, in my journey, what am I to do?
Don’t wait until then
decide at the beginning of the journey and continue to reassert that decision along the journey.
If we wait until it’s crunch time to make decisions then we have planned to fail.
I have watched enough ball games to know that the coach doesn’t wait until game time to work out his plays.
His team has worked on those plays over and over, in order that they will be able to use them when and if the time comes.
You can’t decide how to handle crisis when crisis comes.
You have to plan ahead, when your mind is clear and there is no stress.
Like Joshua, of old Joshua 24:14-15 “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly…But is you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve…As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
I had to decide that I would stand for Jesus.
Therefore, I had to decide that we attend church each Sunday.
In the past, I have missed church because I had house guests.
I rationalized this by saying that I can’t insist they go if they don’t want to and it would be rude of me to abandon them.
The Lord convicted me of this.
I started saying to weekend guests “We will be getting up about this time to get ready for church. You are more than welcome to join us.”
Now that we have church in our home, it has kind of fixed itself.
NOTE: This has been beneficial for at least 2 reasons: #1 I am living in obedience, and #2 we have very few unwanted weekend houseguests. So it’s WIN WIN
Were they living in my house, I would insist that they go with us.
I will not have people living in my house who dictate to me their rules and conditions.
My kids know the rule is “My house, my rules”
You can argue with me all you want, but I think its time we start worrying less about our child’s acceptance of us as their buddy and more about our and their standing with God.
That’s tough love: That we say “I would rather you be mad at me and go to heaven than be happy with me and go to hell.
I believe its past time for Christians to stop worrying that we may offend someone with the truth.
“Well, Pastor Michael, Christians are not supposed to offend people!”
Read the book…Jesus was offensive to many people...mainly the religious croud.
Catch someone in the dark. Flip on the lights and see if they say “Thank you.”
In short, I had to decide, in advance, to take the direction that God would have me take. How can we know what that direction would be when we never even pick up our Bible and read the road map that God has given us? How about if we were to spend time communicating with the one that is above and can see our location as well as our destination?
Conclusion:
When I was in the army, 30 years ago, I knew that I would have to take a PT test, physical training test, periodically. It was no surprise when the time came around. I prepared for the test every day when I went and worked out. I knew that they would test to see how many push-ups I could do, in 2 minutes and how many sit-ups I could do in 2 minutes. They would also test me to see how quickly I could run 2 miles.
I expected the test, I prepared for the test, and I understood the purpose of the test.
Should we, as Christians settle for less?
When we are tested, to check our readiness, will we fall short or prove that we have stood firm in our resolve to live a life dedicated to Jesus Christ that would illicit no greater response than to one day hear our heavenly father state “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Job 23:10-11 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside
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