Plan B

Most people are living in what I like to call plan B.

I thought I would marry my high school sweetheart, but didn’t. I thought I’d be settled in my career by now, but instead I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I thought I’d own a house, have a cute little dog, or a house full of kids by now. I thought I’d be further along in my life.

But instead, I’m trying to define what happened between my initial plan and the life I’m now living – plan B.

At some point in life, most of us, intentionally or unintentionally veer off our perceived plan A and end up on the road to somewhere that looks very unfamiliar with the notions we grew up with. The result is a sense of failure, frustration, and disappointment.

Life in plan B can be awful. Life in plan B can bring you down and discourage you. It’s even worse when you replay the tape of your life in your mind and see the exact choices you made that landed you in plan B. It’s even worse when you see the lives of others around you who took the road to plan A and their lives seem perfect or at the very least trouble free.

Yet life in plan B can be the exact place you and I were meant to be.

I have a confession to make. I’ve spent the entire night searching God’s word on this concept of plan B, and I have yet to find it mentioned anywhere in Scriptures.

Wait a second, you’re thinking. What about people like Jacob? It was, after all, his lying that got him in his family mess and led him to Laban and the sisters. Or what about Joseph? If he didn’t tease his brothers about being the favorite son, he could have spared himself the time in the Egyptian prison. Or what about David? Are you saying Bathsheba was plan A? That Solomon was God’s plan A?

Let me say it again so you’re not confused at all: there are no plan Bs in the word of God. God is a sovereign all knowing all seeing all perfect God, and His plans are all perfect. Even when your actions are not. God already knows that man’s decisions are lousy. He already knows that sin will inevitably lead to uncomfortable and often painful consequences. But His plans are not thwarted or budged by our willfully stubborn decisions.

There are no mistakes with God. You are where you are because He has sovereignly allowed you to be in this place. It says in Colossians 1:17 that “He is before all things and in him all things hold together”. And if that means nothing to you, check out Hebrews 2:8 where it says “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.” And in Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

You may still be wondering: well about my part in this?

Great question. But are you sure you are ready for the answer?

Here it is anyway: Submit.

In one word, that is what every human being must do no matter where you find yourself in life, be it plan A or plan B. Well, how do you do that? Here are practical tips for monday on Submission:

Admit where you are wrong.

Believe that He is right.

Learn what He is teaching.

Accept the road you are on.

Rejoice no matter what.

Easy peesy lemon squeezy. And remember Romans 8:28: “and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Plan B is your plan A. Now go out and live like it.

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