We make plans and they fall apart.

What to do when everything you planned fails

My eyes where fixed on the television, in it I saw Bear Grylls sitting under a tree during a down poor attempting to make a fire. Earlier in the Show Bear had been dropped of some where in South America, He was well aware that soon his trail would take him trough the rain forest, so as a precaution he grabbed some dry grass that he found on the ground for tinder and stuffed it in his shirt to keep it dry. Fast forward a couple of scenes and Bear is wet, sad and hunched over his tinder attempting to strike a flame with his fire rod. I watched as he struck over and over again shooting out sparks of up to 5,500°F. These where simply not enough. Bear was prepared, he grabbed the dry tinder. Bear was equipped, he had his fire rod. Bear had a plan, he kept the tinder dry in his shirt so that he could start a fire. But regardless of all of that, he did not have a fire that night. 

Some times life can feel the same way. We make plans, we equip ourselves and we prepare but nothing seems to work out the way it should. Some one else gets the job, your girl says is not working out, a deal fails, or a house does not sell. It almost seems like one big cynical joke sometimes. we do our best, in earnest we prepare ourselves for adventure but the moment we need something to happen for us, no dice. We are left with nothing but our idle plans and preparedness. These are the moments that make men want to give up, these are the moments in which the biggest lies arise from your head , these are the moments in which fear of failure becomes your greatest enemy. These are the moments in which hope and faith must become your closest allies. 

The word of God says this:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
– James 4:13-15

This can almost seem as a cold and harsh piece of scripture, after all, it is calling our existence a vapor. But allow me the honor of sharing some perspective with you.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."
-Jeremiah 29:11-12

 Our God is good, this is his ultimate attribute. We can say that God is many big, poetic and existential words but ultimately, I want you to know that He is good. It is because He is so good that I can trust that His plans are better than mine, it is because He is so good that I can trust that He wants nothing but success for our existence, it is because He is good that I know that even if He does not allow us to do "business" in one town, then surely He has success for us in an other. It is because He is so good that I can trust that when our plans and preparedness fail us, when our desires are wrong, when we make a mistake. He will take care of us.

It is trust in those statements that keep you going, it is those words of hope that remind you that it is not over, that there is still things for you to do, that this is not the time for self pity but a time for humility, trust and perseverance. Bear Grylls did not get a fire that night, and it got dark fast. He could have stayed sad and soaked, instead he took the kindling and stuffed all around his shirt and pulled his hood up, this trapped pockets of warm air around him allowing him to survive the night with out the crippling damage of exposure.

You see when our plans fail we have two choices, either we give up and meet our end or we trust that God is good and adapt to our situation to the best of our ability knowing that this down poor to shall pass.
Thank you for reading and see you next week.