We Try, We Fail. We Try Again

Have you ever heard the annoying phrase, "We plan, and God laughs?"

I find it annoying, because the older you get in life, the more important your plans are. Maybe in high school it was slightly comical when your daydreams didn't become reality, but when you get into your thirties, plans become pretty essential.

Plans to get married, plans to have kids, plans to give your children a certain life. Plans to become the people you have looked up to for years. Plans to avoid the habits you detested in others.

And then God 'laughs.'

You work so hard for something. Night and day you toil and try. Then, the thing turns to dust. A pregnancy is lost. A marriage vow breaks. A job is dissolved. Maybe the thing wasn't your fault, maybe the loss was completely out of your control: A spouse cheats. Or, maybe you just were not as strong as you thought you were. The weight you wanted to carry broke your shoulders: You became depressed.

The idea that God 'blesses' some with the plans they wanted, and 'laughs' at the heartache of others is crushing. Fortunately, it's also not true. Those with a seemingly perfect life are not 'blessed' with everything they ever hoped for. Those that struggle are not lacking in anyway. We are humans, living in a broken world, striving for heaven. Heaven has nothing to do with us achieving our plans on Earth.

We try. We fail. We ask forgiveness, and forgive others in return. The cycle of our hard work is more important than the actual success of our planning. The cycle is what will ultimately bring us closer to, or far away from God. Strength is not measured in worldly success, but in our ability to keep walking towards God. We are successful when we continue towards holiness, even when our path is hard, rocky, or full of thorns.

So, be brave, blessed little struggling ones. To those broken by broken plans, do not loose hope: God is not laughing, He is growing in you. Keep your focus towards Christ, look to Him for strength, and always remember our ultimate plan should be eternal life with Him.