Don’t start the day without a plan: Don’t settle for less #02

Some people get along well in life without a plan for the day. Supposedly, most people don’t do so well without one. I can’t really say, since I’m one who rarely has a plan, and if I do, it’s not very detailed, certainly doesn’t cover every minute of the day, and was probably done by my wife while we’re on vacation. She loves having plans for vacations. And I love that she loves to make them. But since this is a look at secular success methods applied to Christianity, we need to change directions here.

What about plans for living as Jesus did – at least as much as we can today? Will planning help with that?

Again, I look at myself, and I have to say, I’m not a good role model there either. It’s probably because I never really needed much of a plan. When I was a kid – I was pretty much told what to do and when to do it. No plan needed. When I started working, I got the perfect job for me – one in IT where most of my day was taken up by whatever issue there was that day that had to be dealt with. Even as a manager later in my career, at least 50% of my day had to be reserved for unplanned things that came up. And that’s fine – for me.

But for most people, so I’ve heard, don’t start the day without a plan is a good idea. 

As for trying to learn about God, live life in a way that honors God, follows what Jesus taught – it’s not easy. It takes time to learn. Time to consider what we do and don’t do. And since at least some of the things we do are “extras” that come with Christian life, they take planning.

Well, sort of. Now that I’m retired, most of my day is spent doing research, learning about Christianity, and writing – like for this article. Again, most people don’t do that. But for me, it means I don’t have to really schedule much other than the class I teach on Sundays.

However, if you’re working, you don’t have that much time. If you have kids – God bless you, but I don’t know how you do it. And since those things require so much time, God moves down the list of priorities. For most people, it’s not like you can have kids, no job, ignore the kids, and somehow not run into all kinds of trouble.

If you don’t have kids, there are still competing priorities – and schedules, once again, really help to make sure everything that really does matter to you actually gets its due time slots in your busy life.

---

So, with that in mind, let’s get into the second in a series of traits for successful people in the secular world that we’re going to look at: Don’t start the day without a plan, from bestlifeonline.com.

✏️ Your chance at success starts from the first moments of your day. Successful people don’t just go where the wind takes them every morning-they decide what to direct their energy toward, and they follow through throughout the day.

“Outlining your day is essential to ongoing consistent success,” says Erica Latrice, a career and business development coach. “Without a plan for the day, it’s easy to get sucked into time drainers like checking your email nonstop, social media scrolling, and tackling other people’s emergencies while putting your priorities on the back burner.”

bestlifeonline.com

Don’t start the day without a plan

Don’t start the day without a plan.  Awesome idea.  You may be familiar with the saying – failing to plan is planning to fail.  More words of wisdom.  From the secular world.

The first question, whether it be for a Christian or non-Christian, is what are we planning for?  What’s the overall number one goal?  Obviously, we’re going to look at this from the point of view of a Christian.  Here’s a hint.  The overarching goal is not to get to Heaven.  At least, not only to get to Heaven.  Yes, Heaven is the ultimate destination.  However, there’s a journey along the way there.  And it’s that journey along with the reason for the journey that’s most important.

Here are four passages to help define what we’re planning for.

Part of the plan – passage #1 – “If you stick with this …”

The verses I’m starting with come from a much larger conversation Jesus was having, but these two lines capture the simple beginning point all Christians share: the journey starts by sticking with what Jesus says. That’s why I’m focusing on just these two today.

Even those words may be a bit much for some people who aren’t that familiar with Christianity, so let me make it easy. Essentially, at the most basic level, we have The Message Translation below.

Reducing it to “if you stick with this” makes it the simplest beginning point all Christians share. Of course, it gets more complex as we “stick with it” – but the point is made that we progress by starting with basic, small steps, and then through consistently reading the Bible, understanding it, and following through with what we learn – then we begin to change our lives.

Do we really need to change our lives?

You may ask, do we need to change our lives? Doesn’t the Bible say that we only have to believe? Believing isn’t changing – it’s just believing. Isn’t it?

Let’s take a look at something and try to find out.

That says believe, doesn’t it?

Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This is probably the most famous verse in the Bible.  As such, I expect it’s also high up on the list of verses that express what people are looking for when they become Christians.  The love of God.  Eternal life with Him.

The thing about this verse is the importance of understanding what “believes in him” actually means.  It’s not just saying “I believe”.  The words Jesus used, and indeed everything He taught, points to more than what we think of today when we hear the word “believe”.  Jesus taught that we must believe so much that we want to actually do the things He talked about.  Try to live the kind of life He did.

In an effort to keep these “Don’t settle for less” discussions relatively short, I won’t go into further detail here.  However, I do encourage you to check out Are we supposed to Believe God, Believe in God or Follow God?

Can we modify the plan?

OK – believe turns out to not mean what a lot of people think it means. What next?

Really, we have two choices.

• Drop the plan entirely. Give up on Christianity because we don’t want to change.
• Modify the plan. What God offers is more than enough to make a plan change/life change worth it.

Yes, we could go either way. We need to ask ourselves – what got me interested in Christianity in the first place? What was I willing to “believe” and why? Now, realizing that “believe” means change our lives to match what we were willing to believe – wouldn’t that new belief eventually going to lead us to want to change our lives anyway? Seriously – how many things do we believe – but live out life in a way that says we don’t believe them at all?

What got my plan started – and kept it going,

But what if we’re still not convinced this change thing is something we’re willing to adopt. We want to know more.

Well, God’s got that covered.

Don’t start the day without a plan – passage #2

The very first passage that ever got my attention, way back in grade school is the one below.

Whatever your verse is, it may or may not change as you go along in life.  As we learn more, grow in our faith, have different experiences, we’ll certainly learn more about God.  As a result of that, we’ll find other reasons to want to spend eternity with Him.  Whether that changes our overarching goal or not – that’s an individual thing.

For me, I’ve definitely extended the reasons I want to follow God and experience eternity with Him.  Having said that, my number one is still eternity with a Father who loves me.

For me – verses 9-12 were what I wanted. I still remember, in second grade, hearing that part asking about our father. My immediate though was – mine would give me the stone and the snake. My mother as well. I wanted that God.

It took a long time. Things got so bad I ran away from the God who didn’t seem to want to do anything but hurt me.

But look at verses 7-8. God answers. The door opens. But – on His time, when we’re truly ready, which may not match when we think we’re ready.

Eventually – I went back to Him. I’m so glad I did.

The thing is – as much as I wanted that door to open and to experience that Father so many years earlier – if I hadn’t gone through all the “stuff” that happened while I was running away and slowly coming back, I wouldn’t be able to write and talk about the things that I can now. And I honestly don’t think I’d experience that Father with the intensity that I have without going through life, such as it was, until He was ready to open the door.

So, ask yourself – why did I want to get into this Christianity thing? Reflect on why – and what life would be if you gave up whatever it was that drove you to want to learn about Jesus in the first place.

As I said, I not only walked away – I ran away. And kept searching for something else. The thing is, there isn’t anything else like this Father and this Son. Nothing.

I recently wrote You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It’s over on my other site. It’s about knowing the truth – and that truth is the Truth of God. If you’re still wondering about whether or not Christianity is “worth” the changes – I urge you to go check it out.

And – or – how about this next passage?

What if be do become a Christian – then what’s our plan?

Of course, there’s a plan. Maybe not the one we started with – but a better one. And since we’re not a bunch of robots, our plans are all customized just for us. Look at it this way – God created us, so who could possibly put together a better plan for our lives than Him?

Let’s find out more.

Don’t start the day without a plan – passage #3

Finally, let’s look at something John wrote to try to tie together the John 3:16 passage with your own personal one.

No – we don’t necessarily have to literally, physically die to show our love for others.  However, our plan for each day should include, if they are known, specific things we can do to show that love.  Obviously, that’s not something which will be showing up every day for most people.

But we certainly can have, as part of our daily plan, reminders to watch for such opportunities.  Beyond just watching for them, we also need to have time for them when the opportunity does arrive.  That means flexibility.  Priorities.  Prayers – to both talk to and listen to God.

Here’s the thing about more than just believe.  When we acknowledge (and really mean it, as opposed to just saying some words) God is in us.  The Holy Spirit is in us.  How then can we not do something with what we believe?  And then, how can we not include those things in our daily plan?

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

No, living the Christian life isn’t easy.  We will be doing things beyond our normal comfort zone.  But God is with us.  So we shouldn’t be afraid to include Him in our daily plan.

Once more time, how can we not include time in our daily plan for the things that God presents for us to accomplish?

All this hopefully makes sense.  And it really should.  After all, Jesus spelled it out quite nicely.

Don’t start the day without a plan – conclusion

So no – don’t start the day without a plan.  The concept works for successful secular people.  And it’s a good thing for Christians who want to be successful as well.  Jesus was what we’d call an itinerant preacher, to some extent.  He did what some in secular management would call – management by walking around.  I used to do that when I was working.  It’s a great way to really know what’s happening.  Keep up with things.

It’s good for Christians as well.  Just keep in mind, as Paul wrote, everything we do is for Christ.

Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Question – If we really care so much about our Christian beliefs, isn’t that grounds for not only having a plan, but having Jesus in His rightful place in that plan?