Pastor’s Ponderings

 “The Best Laid Plans”

Maybe we can blame Robert Burns. He was the one who first wrote the famous quote in a poem entitled “The Mouse.”  John Steinbeck borrowed the last part of that quote to title one of his novels. What did Robert Burns say? “The best laid plans of mice and men go awry.” Boy, does THAT describe 2020. We knew where we were going and how we would get there. Our plans were settled. But we forgot that “a man’s heart deviseth his way (we make plans): but the Lord directeth his steps (the Lord ultimately determines where we go)” (Proverbs 16:9).

In my final sermon of 2020 I mentioned two big lessons I learned this year, and I wanted to reiterate them here.

1) My plans don’t matter. I had much of 2020 mapped out. I had my sermon series’ in place. I knew what the choir would sing at Easter, God and Country Sunday, and even Christmas. March hit, and everything went out the window. We forgot the words of James when he wrote, “¹³Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

I’m not saying that planning is wrong, but everything I do should be done in God’s will with God’s blessing. Rather than making my plans, I must allow God’s will to shape my life so my plans are His plans.

2) God’s plans do matter. Over and over during His earthly ministry Jesus made it clear that He “must be about my Father’s business”

(Luke 2:49). He worked the “works of Him that sent me” (John 4:34). He often told people, “No” so He could tell His Father, “Yes.”

So what are your plans for 2021? Whatever they may be, please make them with God’s will in mind. Remember that you may make the plans, but God directs the steps!

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I love my self-defense class, but it can be rough. The instructor puts us in pairs every session, and we hit, kick, punch, gouge, and whatever else is necessary to protect ourselves. Yes, we do hold thick padding to protect ourselves, but I often walk away with a sore chest from Del Cavazos hitting me so hard.

Jon, our instructor, is always telling us to avoid fights! “Don’t go down that dark alley. Cross over to the other side of the street.” The best fight you will ever have is the fight you avoid. Recently I remarked to him, “This is a class where our ultimate goal is never to use any of what we learn” (think Algebra).

As soon as those words came out of my mouth, I thought of the Christian life. How often do we see the truths God has for us yet ignore them. James told his readers to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only, . . . (James 1:22). We forget that the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock was a reminder to DO God’s Word and not just listen to it.

James goes on to say that we deceive ourselves when we only listen. There must be action! John says it well: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3).

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We have some important business meetings coming up. Sundya night, January 10, we will present the need for new Air Conditioners/Heaters for the gym. While this is routine maintenance that usually would not need a vote, the deacons and I looked at the total cost and felt it should go before the church. The vote will take place January 24, and we will have a way that everyone who wants to vote can vote, even in these unusual times!

This will lead up to another business meeting in which we vote on remodeling the auditorium. This has been a couple of years in the planning, and we hope to get this done during the pandemic. We will have to shift everything out of the auditorium building if this happens.

Be in prayer about this, and we pray that 2021 can, indeed, be a year of rebuilding, and that we will be a Comeback Church!

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I have asked from the beginning for you to pray for me and my family in five areas. Thank you for doing so, and please continue to plead with God that I would have:

1) Courage

2) Wisdom

3) Strength

4) Victory