Isn’t this how life usually works? You are laying out all the grand plans for your life, when life itself interrupts and says, excuse me, this is how it is going to go.
How many husband and wife’s have had the unexpected baby added to their family. They thought all the children were born and in high school or college only to find out, wait a minute, we are having another child. How many people have thought this job would be the last job, this house would be the last house, this relationship will be the last relationship, and I will do this or that in life only to find out that God has a different plan. On a sad note, how many people die unexpectedly? If you are a 134 years old, it may be expected but no one plans for an early death.
Therefore my point is that many times, life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. When I started in business, I used to be a goal setter. At the beginning of the year I would write out sales goals and income goals and have a great plan all written out. It never turned out like I planned. Along about the 3rd year of selling hotels, I stopped setting goals and chose rather to just be available and go where the year took me. I was much happier that way than trying to write it all out and pretending I could predict the future.
To some people, goal setting is a good and needed thing but for others it becomes much more problematic. In some situations it can even work against you. If your income is steady, I think setting financial goals of how much to save, how much to give etc. is a very good thing. If your income is not predictable, it changes how you plan for the future.
Sometimes it is the unpredictable things in life that are the sweetest. It is having your children or grandchildren come by unexpectedly even though it changes your plans for that day. It is like you and your spouse, friend or child just deciding spur of the moment to go out to dinner. It is like Friday afternoon just deciding to go somewhere for the weekend. Sometimes being too rigid in our planning keeps us from the spontaneity of the moment.
I believe the main point is to recognize how little control our plans actually have over our future and we need to recognize who is the master planner of our future. KT