Should We Plan? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Like many others, I’ve been taking these couple of days prior to the start of 2021 to organize my schedule. I recently received a “virtual” speaking engagement for a women’s conference February 2nd. Today, a conference that had been cancelled in 2020, reached back out with the new dates, and it felt good to place these events on my abandoned calendar.
I’m also praying for direction on a Pearls of Promise 2021 Level-Up Women’s Conference in the Fall. But as I look ahead, I still wonder, Should I plan? All of 2020 was cancelled. Even with the vaccine on its way, will we truly be back to normal?
These are legitimate questions, but before the Pandemic, we did not know what the next day held. James had a good handle on this when he said: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.’ 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 the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that'” (James 4:13–15).
So keeping James’ words in mind, I say, “Let’s plan!—with the asterisk *God willing. I will speak at that event.* We will have a Level-Up conference.* We will plan family vacations.*
We should not remain paralyzed and fearful of moving forward. We have to continue to plan for the future with prayer as our foundation and God leading us with His pillar of light, just as He did with the Israelites. We are created in God’s image and He is a planner who desires to be in the center of our future endeavors.
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Proverbs 16:3).
“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5).
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28).
Today, let’s put some 2021 plans on paper, knowing that ultimately, our lives and our plans are in the hands of God. Let’s move forward with hope that the worst is behind us and that our plans will succeed and not fail.*
*God willing.