Random is actually a plan

Here’s the reality: if you do not plan life, it will still happen. Like the road on a video game, the terrain comes at you whether you’re paying attention or not! And rather than heading in the direction that you intend, you might end up in some other direction. 

As well, you’ll likely find yourself in some random destination, then sit scratching your head and wondering how you ever got there (I’ve done this plenty of times while driving and in life). 

How many times have you looked at yourself in the mirror and thought, “How in the world did I end up here?”

The answer is simply this: that’s where the road you were on goes. Whether you're paying attention to the scenery or not, you're still moving… down the road.

In life, just as in driving, it’s often difficult to determine just where it was that you lost course and started getting lost (or where you quit paying attention). Most often, it just occurs that you’re somewhere different than where you thought you would be at that point.

The daily commute

In John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership he writes about what he calls “The Law of Process” (chapter 3). He writes, 

What matters most is what you do day by day over the long haul... What can you see when you look at a person’s daily agenda? Priorities, passion, abilities, relationships, attitude, personal disciplines, vision, and influence. See what a person is doing every day, day after day, and you’ll know who that person is and what he or she is becoming.

In other words, you should not bail out every time you see a bump. There are uphill climbs on every path. Rather, you should look at the overall destination of the path- over the long haul. And, you should work that process- even if the road has a boring stretch that makes you want to just “zone out!”

Here are a few Bible verses that will help you begin to grasp this concept.

• Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (ESV).
• Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (ESV).
• Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (ESV).
• Proverbs 20:24 says, “A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way” (ESV)?

You’re headed somewhere…

If the tires are rolling, the car is moving. Fast or slow, it’s headed somewhere. 

The same is true in life. If you’re breathing, you’re going somewhere. You can choose where you are going and go there on purpose. Or you can simply move randomly and end up somewhere “by accident.”

If you rebel at this idea and say “I’m not using a plan,” then that is your plan. And you are following the same “dead end” reasoning that every other unconventional thinker conventionally uses. 

When I was in high school, all rebellious pot heads looked the same.

So did all of the jocks.

And all of the band... well, people (we had a different name for them!)… they looked exactly the same, too.

The key = intention 

All non-planners look exactly alike. Their plan is the “no plan” plan. And that plan looks like every other non-planners, plan. Despite the fact they insist it works… and despite the obvious calamity around them… well…  we tend to have a disconnect between our own actions and the results we get.

I’m not suggesting you become someone other than who God has made you to be. It’s odd that people who refuse to create a plan (even though they get to decide what’s in their plan, by the way) say that having to make a plan is forcing them into being something that they’re not.  

Again, I’m not suggesting you do that. 

I am suggesting, though, that you take inventory and get things in order- financially, with your family, fitness-wise, whatever- so that you are free to be who God has designed you to be.

You’re headed somewhere. 

Doesn’t it make sense to head where you want to go instead of heading somewhere you don’t want to go, somewhere that just happens by accident?

Your next move

This video comes from The Next Best Step, a grace-based 12-step curriculum. 

Concepts from this video also resonate with the Advance Planner and Advance Planner Workshop.