Following
Plan B (where B stands for BEST)!
Did you ever have a plan that you were so
determined to make happen and then it completely fell apart? It is SO HARD to admit it even when others
around us can see the plan not materializing.
We keep scrambling, make some tweaks, but at some point it’s dead in the
water. Sometimes Plan A is a bust.
I had one of those plans and it was called
VISION 2008 for the church I was leading at in Milton, Ontario. It was 2003 at the time and I really felt it
was from God. I saw our church growing
from 110 to 1000. I saw at least 50
small group with 20 people in each. I
had a vision statement, core values and the town was exploding. I had been reading about church growth and I
wanted to see us expand our sphere of influence. I memorized the words, the strategy and even
catch phrases like ‘transitional disequalibrium’. This meant that people who move into a
community are very open to changes in behavior, habits and I wanted them to be
part of our church. We had a window of
opportunity and I was ready to seize the moment… but it didn’t happen. The year
2008 came and we were still trying to grow past 200. It never happened like I thought.
Moving
on from PLAN A to PLAN B
Plan B is that moment of pain or
recognition of failure where you realize maybe you weren’t listening well to
God especially if you sensed the plan was from Him. It is also the point where maybe you were
listening to God, but you had this idol in your heart called “my definition of success”.
Plan B “the BEST plan” wasn’t your plan, you could never have dreamt it up, but
it unfolded and became your gameplan!
Let’s do a quick
overview of someone in the Bible who I’m convinced went from Plan A in his own
dreams to PLAN BEST!
In Genesis we ready
about Joseph the boy with a coat of many colors. His
father, Jacob, loved him more than any of his brothers and Joseph had dreams of
greatness. He told his family about them
and it involved ruling over them. In his dreams, he and
his brothers were binding sheaves of grain and his sheaf stood upright and all
the sheaves around it were bowing to his sheaf. The sun,
moon and the stars were bowing to him in his second dream.
How do you think his family felt or more
importantly his brothers about the dreams? Remember, at this time, he was the
youngest. One day his father asks him to
check on his brothers who were looking after their flocks in Dothan and they
decide to throw him in an empty well.
They then decide to sell him for 20 pieces of silver to a travelling group
called the Ishmaelites who sell him to Potiphar, a captain of the guard. He
does really well here until he is accused of rape with Potiphar’s wife and
thrown into prison.
Right here it looks like broken plans,
crumbled dreams and deep disappointment.
So much for his dreams and plan A.
Through the power of God, he is able to
interpret dreams in prison and most importantly the Pharoah’s dreams and
enables Egypt to become a super power through the 7 years of feast that
prepared the nation for the upcoming famine.
What can we learn from all this?
Hold
on to your plan loosely
Jeremiah 29:11 For I
know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Remember this verse was originally given to
the children of Israel while they were taken captive and in exile in
Babylon. It didn’t look at all like a
prosperous plan.
God has a great plan for your life, a plan
that will bring peace and real joy that Jesus came to give you. If you’ve surrendered your life to Him and
submitted to His guidance, you don’t have to fear when any plan goes down the
tubes. Here’s the thing about the church
in Milton. We ended up getting really
involved with the women’s shelter in town.
We helped move ladies out and get set up in a new home. Sharon also started a ‘Good For Nothing’
clothing store. It was a free clothing
store for people in need in our community.
The funny thing is that when people heard about our church and all that
we were doing, they assumed we were a church of 1000 people!
Another reason that plan A doesn’t come
together is that God may be protecting
you from something. In our
excitement to accomplish something, it’s easy to run with the wrong plan. Who wants to keep doing something that
ultimately ends in futility? Not
me.
Finally, God may be preparing you for
something greater. Isaiah 55:9 His
ways are ultimately higher than our ways
and all things are really possible with God
It was never our PLAN A to start a church in as strip club. We just kept listening to the Holy Spirit and
God led us in to our BEST PLAN, serving and working with the people who live
and work at the Manor!
Joyce Meyer gives some practical examples
of this as she writes:
If
you tried to restore a friendship, but that friend insisted on ending the
relationship, God may be leading by closing a door. This may have been a friendship that would
cause you damage down the road.
If
you worked as hard as you could, but your employer laid you off, God may be
protecting you from a job that would never fulfill His plan for you.
Just
because something doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you failed. God may be using it to ultimately guide you
into His plan.
