Plan B Living
I read a book by Bobby Knight a few years ago and this last year has really made the words he wrote ring true. The book was titled “The Power of Negative Thinking”, which may seem like a title you would not want to read. We have been taught to always think in a positive way and life will be better for us. I don’t disagree with that thought, but then I lived life and read a couple of books that made me rethink what I thought.
King Solomon wrote something similar a couple of millennia ago. In Proverbs 16:9 he wrote: “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” We all make plans for the day, week, month or year and I wonder if we all talked we might actually begin to realize that our plan A rarely works out. We make these plans and we are positive that things will work out just like we planned it. We spend blood, sweat and tears sometime and it just does not matter.
Our plans can be undone in a moment. It usually does not take much to mess up everything. A phone call, lost car keys, delayed plane or just about anything. So if this is true that all of our plans can be dumped in a moment. But, most of the time we go about our lives actually believing that our plan A will work out perfectly. It is this kind of thinking and planning that can make us lose our mind in frustration. That is why like Bobby Knight said we need to realize that thinking negatively is not always a bad thing.
We need to think past the idea that everything will work out and realize that we are more than likely going to need a plan B. It is not a lack of faith to have the next steps planned out. After all, we are usually left scrambling to get our stuff back together and on track. So what if we planned for it go right, but have another plan for when something does not quite work out. We need to stop and just let ourselves think about something going bad, but if it usually does, we need to be ready for it. So how do make Plan B living actually work?
I believe that first of all you need to have a plan A. Decide where you want to go and then stop for a moment. Think through what could go wrong. See the possible bad scenarios and how you will react. In a sports term it might be called half time adjustments. Because, like Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the face.” So you better be ready for anything. I mean after all cars come with a spare tire or donut for when a flat happens. So quit thinking one plan is enough. Be ready to shift gears to a new plan when life goes a different way.
Most importantly, I think we need to quit falling apart when life falls apart. If you expect and plan for things to go wrong then you can survive when it actually happens. If you expect and plan then we can find our way through what happens to us in our lives. So make your plans and follow the steps God has for you. After all, he will use life’s “misfortunes” to change our own lives.