How Did the Plan Work?

Fall is off to a quick start and I can’t believe October is almost over.  There are so many things I like about this month like candy corn, pumpkins, leaves changing and all of the butterflies in a flurry everywhere.  I have intentionally cultivated a garden that would attract these pollinators so I can selfishly enjoy watching them flutter around my house and yard. While I have no preference of butterfly color, I do have some that I notice and enjoy. For example, the small, bright, yellow ones that are very prolific or the Monarch Butterfly because of their migratory life.  I saw a beautiful large purple and a black butterfly that were so majestic.  I love all butterflies but I fancy the Monarch Butterfly mainly due to their travel life.
 
 
As missionaries, I can fully relate to maybe not a migratory life but certainly transitional lifestyle. We lived in multiple countries in multiple houses and traveled to multiple countries for various reasons.  During our “life span” in Mexico City, I learned that the Monarch Butterflies migrated to several areas in Mexico.  The closest area to us was the National Park of El Nevado de Toluca and I was determined to go see them dragging the entire family.  The perfect opportunity, so I thought, presented itself when Tiffany, our oldest attending college in Oklahoma wanted to bring her boyfriend Travis down to meet us during Spring Break.  Hindsight is perfect so “they” say and it was probably not the most perfect plan I ever had to implement with people who were not butterfly enthusiasts. To be painfully truthful…. teenagers do not care if they see the Monarch Butterfly in their migratory location.
 
We packed lunch and I enthusiastically talked up the trip as a great opportunity in life to see trees completely orange due to the magnitude of butterflies as we traveled the two hours to the areas. We had planned additional time in the park nearby to ride horses and four wheelers. That was to be the trip saver if the butterflies did not overwhelm them. Upon arrival and much to my dismay and anguish, we were at the conclusion of their overwintering hibernation.  To be able to see whatever butterflies were left in the forest mountain, we would have to hike up the mountain a couple of miles.  Okay, need I say more?  What I had envisioned our time being in the splendor presence of untold number of butterflies, painting the trees orange had just imploded in my mind.  At this point, only Travis was being kind about the adventure, because the rest of the troops were “belly aching” but marched on.  We did rent a couple of horses to carry a few of us up the mountain.  Why we did that I don’t know.  I yielded my horse to the most vocal complainant, which then turn into a comical fiasco because this is the child who was afraid of horses and to add insult upon injury was riding on a small trail straight up the side of the mountain.
 
I wish I could report that the lengthy endeavor bore out fruitfully but then I would be fibbing. Did we see some Monarchs,?  Yes we did but if I was honest, it was probably the dead carcasses of Monarchs who did not live long enough to leave the trees. Darrell said they were there by the thousands but not the millions as anticipated.  Fortunately, the entire trip was not a bust because lunch was good and the kids really enjoyed the four wheeling and horse riding activities. Oh the plans we can conjure up with very little consideration to the time, cost, value and potential damage on those whom we impose those plans.
 
The thought of plans led me first to the Tower of Babel.  In Genesis 11:1-19 we find that the whole world had a common language and speech.  The people were moving eastward and settled in a plain called Shinar.  It’s here that they concocted their elaborate plan to build a tower.  In verse 4, they lay out their plan. “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” In their plan they had three goals: build a city for themselves, have a tower to reach the heavens and to make a name for themselves.  There was nothing about God in that plan.  Then God responded.  In verses 5-7 it says, “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building”.  The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” And the Lord’s results: He scattered them over the earth and the building on the tower was stopped.  They couldn’t communicate with each other, hence, it’s called Babel.  People were scattered around the world with different languages. Oh the plans we can conjure up.   
 
 
I have heard people ask or discuss if God needs to be involved in every decision that we make.  I believe there is a balance, one that reflects the “sense” that God has given us.  Nowadays, that very word “sense” should not be held as an absolute because “common sense” and what is right and wrong is all mixed up in our society.  We take to God whatever decision we feel we need help making or appear to be in question.  That sounds simple, but for me that pertains to low hanging fruit decisions that we make daily.  Should I go to the grocery store today or tomorrow, where should we eat etc? Actually, we feel at a loss of decision-making power when it comes to where to eat so that might need to be prayed about.   A good practice is to start the day with prayer and asking God to order you steps, to be under the direction of the Holy Spirit and to reflect Jesus to everyone.  This helps with our daily activities.  God can put us in the right place at the right time with the right person who needs to know about Jesus.  Now for the bigger plans, those that affect relationships, finances, career, church, ministry, God should be in the very middle of those decisions.  We need Him to keep us on the straight and narrow, not to get derailed by our own thoughts that lead to ungodly decisions. Our plans should reflect God’s influence and direction.  He will work all things out with timing, resources, provisions and all that concerns us.  Scripture is full of biblical wisdom on plans.  I have listed just a few to encourage you to center on God before making plans,
 
Blessings,
Karen
 
 PS: Consider reading another tragic plan developed by people that took them to an unwanted destination. Exodus 24-32. (primarily Chapters 24, 31-32)
 
 Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 16: 3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Proverbs 16: 9 In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.