By Tim Cool                                     

This may sound controversial to you or even blasphemous….but if you will stick with me and read this entire blog, I think you will agree with my premise. Don’t shut me down yet.

As a maturing young man, I constantly heard counselors, pastors and advisers tell me that I needed to seek God’s plan for my life…to look for His perfect plan…to search for His will. While I believe that this was all well intended advice and maybe even correct, I am not sure it was the “right” thing to focus on. Let me explain what I mean.

The people closest to me might let you know that I have been accused of being a “control freak”…a hard driving, list making, task following, high “D” (on the DISC Profile) type “A” guy.  I love to have my task list.  I even use my Outlook Tasks to remind me to take certain medications. I thrive on having a “plan” to following.  You know…the kind that says that if we do X, then Y is the next step which should produce Z. I love developing marking plans…sales forecasts…master plans for churches…facility preventive maintenance plans and so on.  That’s how I roll…deal with it. LOL

So, as I have thought about “God’s Plan” for me and my life, I find that I have been guilty of trying to make His plan fit into the way I develop other “plans”.  I have prayed and focused on the PLAN.  If I do x..then y.  I have been so deceived (by my own admission) at times that I assumed that God’s plan/will for my life was very narrow to the point that if was 1 degree off to the left or the right, I would be outside His plan.  In many ways this has been debilitating and restrictive…a kind of  legalism. If I did not buy the ONE house that was at the center of God’s will, the rest of the “plan” would be in jeopardy…as if I/Me/Tim Cool could actually impact God’s plan…talk about arrogance!

But as I have been studying the scripture, I am convicted and convinced that I have been seeking the wrong thing.  I have been too focused on the PLAN and not the PLANNER.  Too focused on the events of my life instead of the creator and master of my life. In her devotional book “Jesus Calling”, Sarah Young has reminded her readers to seek God…live close to God…walk peacefully with God…linger in God’s presence…rest in God.  These have been a real blessing to me and convicted me at the same time.  I am guilty of looking for the “plan” that I have failed to just BE with God, my Lord. I have taken my eyes off of Him and focused them on what he can do…or what I think he wants me to do. Just like my Outlook task list, I have turned my relationship with Christ into a check list of activities and “next steps”.

Now don’t get me wrong…I am not supporting a Kumbaya life style or spiritual journey.  I still believe that God wants (even instructs/commands) us to be wise stewards of all He has entrusted to us, including our time and energies.  I also believe that we need to set agendas, have plans and forecast how things might function in the future. Also, as it says in Psalm 40:5, I absolutely believe God has plans for us (Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.) BUT, I believe that our initial seeking should be for God…and His righteousness…and not His plan. Don’t minimize God to a Plan…he is our Lord and Savior and creator of all things.  Seek Him first…the plan will be just fine if He is first in our lives.

Lord, forgive me for not being focused on you.  Forgive me for trying to put you in a box and make you just another task list or strategic plan. Draw me close to you…as I rest in you for WHO you are…not just what you ca

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