Plans, Paralysis, & Purposes

If you’re anything like me, “new” is enough to get my brain rolling. I like New in certain areas of my life. New ideas for changes to our house, I’m in for dreaming. A new event to plan, I’m down for getting creative. New food choices at new restaurants, that’s less fun. 

The end of a calendar year and the turning over to a new one often provides fertile ground for new goals, new hopes, new dreams. With all of that new comes the plans to try and accomplish those things. 

Here are three quick things as we move from 2023 into 2024:

Make Plans.

Make crazy plans and make reasonable plans. Give yourself things to run toward and strive toward; set goals that are out of your reach that will make you stretch to get to them. It’s in the striving and the stretching that we discover what we are truly capable of, not just what we think we have been able to do.

It’s in the pursuit of things that are outside of us that we discover the new things that God wants to do in us. If all we ever set out to do are things that we know we are capable of doing, we will only resolve to trust and live in our own strength and never create the space in our lives to let God move in the incredible and the unpredictable.

Alongside the crazy plans, set reasonable plans. Set plans that you can accomplish. Make plans that are in your gifting. Make plans that incrementally strengthen proficiency. Make plans that move your strengths into areas that you haven’t leveraged before. Plans are good and plans help get things done.

Recognize Paralysis.

The reality is that for some of us, for a variety of reasons, planning paralyzes us. Whether it’s our past, our present, or the prospect of facing the future - we can find ourselves frozen. I know I’ve been there. 

Transparently, goals and plans aren’t always in my strong suit. If you look at the consistency of inconsistency on this blog you can get a clear picture of someone who wants goals to get them somewhere. Our lack of follow through can cause us to be paralyzed by plans. 

Our view of our current reality can bring with it a sense of inadequacy or insufficiency. This makes plans and setting goals seem unnecessary or irrelevant. We can negate the plans before we even set out to accomplish them. This can go for our future as well - how we perceive “what could be” and “what is coming our way” stops us from taking steps in any direction. 

If we are going to be free of these things, we have to first recognize what freezes us. Instead of permitting those things to stop us from moving toward the new things God has for us in this next year, identifying them gives us awareness to isolate them. Ultimately, it reveals to us what we need to bring to God to release them to him.

Hold Plans Loosely.

Man's best laid plans often pale in comparison to the promises of God’s providence in our lives. The pain of our paralysis can be the very thing that God will use to push us forward. Ultimately, it is God’s purposes that will come to fruition and will bring the best possible fruit in our lives. 

Proverbs 16:9 says “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

Make plans. Recognize what paralyzes us from pursuing those plans. But hold them loosely so that you are ready to shift and pursue God when he moves you in a different direction this year.