Best Laid Plans

As with many Catholics, I do some spiritual reading from all different people from various Christian faith traditions. I would like to share something I took from one of those readings (even if it wasn’t the author’s real purpose of the article).

We all have a plan for our lives. When we were teens we determined what we wanted to do with our lives and we determined the time frame. We may have for example wanted to become the CEO of a major firm. So we figured out when we would get there. We calculated the time it would take for our degree and possibly masters degree. We figured out how long it would take to get a job with a good company and then how long to move up the ranks and then determined that within a certain time frame we would get where we wanted to go.

We may also be focused on wanting to be a parent. We figure out how that will fit with our current relationship, getting our degree and career, having financial security, etc. We decide that we may want to live a bit first, settle down and get married. We then determine if we want to have children right away, or after a few years of marriage when we are more financially stable, have our careers set, and even have the house with the white picket fence.

But we all know things don’t always go the way we plan them. We may have a delay in getting that degree, and may need to put the career on hold and simply get a job to pay bills. We may meet the person we fall in love with freshman year of college, and have life go in a very different direction. We may get pregnant (or our girlfriend may get pregnant) which changes everything. We may need to move for that next promotion and need to determine if that is what we need to do to stay on our time line, but it may mess with our new love. Look, I am all for planning. I tell my girls all the time to always have a plan so you know where you are heading. That will let you know when you are not following the plan and then give you an opportunity to re-route your course and time line. But it is surely a jolt to us. We are heard to exclaim, “I can’t get sick now!” or “But having a baby now will change everything!” or even “I am not ready to lose my mom!”

When all else fails in our lives we need to look to Jesus’ life for the best way to do things, don’t we? But Jesus always had His plans work out, right? No! We don’t see many occasions when Jesus’ plan doesn’t work out. Most likely, like us, he just adapted. But, luckily we do have one example in the Gospels. Remember the wedding feast at Cana? It is often the event that we reference as Jesus’ first miracle. It is also when we hear about Jesus doing what His mother asked Him. But there is one small line that we don’t pay much attention to. Jesus says, “My hour has not yet come.” We don’t notice it probably because it isn’t the way we speak and we don’t see it as important. But what He is saying is the same as when we say, “But that cannot happen now!” It isn’t the right time to have to move, or start a family, or get sick, or experience a death, or have an accident. For Jesus, it wasn’t His hour either. But, what did He do? He did what would help, not only His mother, but the whole family involved in the wedding. In Jesus’ time, weddings feasts were several days long and it would have been horribly embarrassing for the family. Jesus puts even His most Holy and essential time line on the side for something more important… people, His mother, and what would be good for many. I am not saying we should just change all of our plans at the drop of a hat. But, if Jesus could go with the needs of others over His plan and time line, then when we have to, we can too. We need to let go of our wanting to control everything and know that if we are doing things to help others and it is not going against God’s true plan for us, all will be well.

What do you think? Please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks, and please do share this with others.