PLANS!

Last week’s historic cold wave continued. It was more sleet, ice, slush, and snow last Wednesday. So Dallas Seminary classes were canceled … again!

I had already made two new schedules for my classes, adjusting sessions, tweaking content, reassigning preachers, etc. This week I had to do it again, for the third time. What a mess!

(I also feel for patients that needed appointments rescheduled, and for those working in the front office of medical practices who have to do all the hard work remaking those appointments, if they can find empty slots, that is. Yup, a mess!)

Things don’t go the way we expect them to, do they?

Hopefully, after the third new class schedule I have created, there won’t be any more snow days this semester. But I am resigned to the fact that there is no guarantee that there won’t be. “Acts of God” do happen.

Nope, things don’t go the way I want them to.

As Rabbie Burns, Scotland’s favorite son, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire, known in those lands simply as “The Bard,” wrote in 1785:

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, [not alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley, [Go often askew]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Agley, they do gang. And aft. Indeed. But thankfully, that’s true only of mice an’ men.

God’s plans go on. His purposes go forth. Ne’er do they gang aft agley, ever!

Everything runs ….

… according to His purpose

who works all things

after the counsel of His will.
Ephesians 1:11

His plans are not thwarted by the vagaries of time and weather.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
The plans of His heart
from generation to generation.
Psalm 33:11

Ours plans often are confounded, negated, and frustrated. Not God’s.

Many plans are in a man's heart,
But the counsel of the LORD will stand.
Proverbs 19:21

Even when we think we are getting our way, we must acknowledge that God is still in charge.

The mind of man plans his way,
But the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

For He is sovereign. He is in control.

The king's heart is like channels of water
in the hand of the LORD;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
Proverbs 21:1

Indeed, I’m glad He is sovereign and in control. How else can we handle all the vicissitudes of life without being shaken?

O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You,

I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago,
with perfect faithfulness.
Isaiah 25:1

Only with a steadfast consciousness of God’s sovereignty and control can there ever be peace of heart and quietude of mind.

The steadfast of mind
You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3

God’s plans last. God’s plans come to pass. God’s plans and God’s alone.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,”
declares the LORD,
“plans for welfare and not for calamity
to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Nope, His plans don’t gang agley. Not at all.

And so we rest, assured of His sovereignty and control.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Isaac Watts, 1719

In Him we trust, our refuge in ice, in snow, in rain, in drought, in darkness, in day, now and for eternity.