If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I’m sure everyone has heard that saying before, and chances are that many of you have experienced the consequences of not planning ahead. I tend to be the kind of person who lives in the moment, so planning ahead is not something I often do. It’s not that planning ahead is a weakness of mine, I just don’t like to do it. When confronted about my lack of planning, it’s easy to just point to scripture to back up my position.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 NIV ©2010
The problem with using this scripture to validate a lack of planning is that it is not about planning ahead. Matthew 6:25-34 is about worry, and often times a lack of planning can bring on a sense of worry.
Take finances for example. When I was in college I racked up a lot of school debt. I didn’t think about repaying it all, so it felt like free money to me. For years after school, I failed to plan out my finances and eventually the collection calls started rolling in. If you’ve ever gotten calls from collection companies, you know the kind of worry that that brings on. If I had planned right and kept up with bills, worry would have never been an issue.
We are told not to worry about tomorrow because God will provide for us. When God has already provided, it is our job to be good stewards and plan how to use the resources He has given us. Don’t worry does not mean don’t plan.
I occasionally still find myself in situations where better planning would have avoided a lot of stress, but those times are becoming less and less as the years go by. As God continues to provide for me, I am learning to plan better whit what He gives me.