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There is an old Yiddish saying that says: Man Plans — God Laughs. You may have heard its more modern rendering, usually attributed to Woody Allen, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” It seems harsh, but if we are being honest, there are times in our lives when it feels true. We have all experienced a moment when even our most carefully prepared plans suddenly become impossible.

Is God really laughing in that moment? No, I don’t think he is. God is not a mocker. He is a caring God that takes no delight in our failures.

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Sometimes our plans fail through no fault of our own and sometimes they fail for another reason altogether — failure to consult God in the midst of our planning. We NEED to consult God, because we can’t see beyond this very minute!

James makes that very point in chapter four. In verses 13-17 he warns us not to make plans about traveling and making money. After all, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. In reality, we don’t even know if tomorrow will come. Verse 14 ends by reminding us that our lives are like a mist that vanishes after a short time.

So, does that mean the old adage is correct? Is making plans just a foolish endeavor? Of course not! Verse 15 gets to the real heart of the matter when it says that we ought to preface our plans with “If it is the Lord’s will.” The issue is not about, and has never been about, making plans. The issue is making plans that don’t include God.

Be aware that James is not telling us to merely pay lip service to God and all of our plans will come true. Adding the words “your will be done” to our plans does nothing if we don’t actually mean it. God doesn’t want us to pretend to include Him. He wants us to have a real relationship with him — a relationship that is so close that we can’t help but trust God to direct our lives, our money, and our futures.

The biggest obstacle to that sort of relationship is ourselves. Quite frankly, it is the sin of pride that causes us to exclude God from our plans. Pride in our own ability to engineer our fate erodes our trust in God. When James warns against boasting in arrogance, he is really instructing us to stop glorifying ourselves.

In Psalm 10, David talks about a wicked man who reviles God. One of the first characteristics he mentions is the wicked man’s exclusion of God. “In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.” (Psalm 10:4) That is the same issue that James is warning us to avoid. If we seek our own path, exclusive from God’s desires, we are in danger of letting our pride replace our recognition of God’s providence.

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All this leads to the question: How do we include God in our plans? In today’s society, surrendering your own will is a hard thing to do. But it is something all of us did once in our lives. As small children, we relied on our parents to give us our daily direction. We may not have always agreed with everything they wanted us to do, but deep down, we trusted that they were looking out for our best interests. If we could just trust God in that same way, our whole outlook on life would change. Instead, we tend to act more like rebellious teenagers, intent on doing things our way because we think we know better.

When we plan our lives without God, we are generally crushed when our plans fail. We put so much of ourselves in our plans — so much time and so much pride — that any deviation from what we expected can feel like a total defeat. On the other hand, when we trust in God, we can say, “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I know God is with me.” We can worry less about our worldly success or failure because we know that whatever the outcome, God is still walking with us and he always has our best interest in his heart. As Paul said in Romans 8:28, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

I don’t know what makes God laugh, but if you want to make God rejoice, make plans that include him. Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”

This is how we ought to plan.

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Parting Thought:

A special report on “This American Life” follows the lives of several people currently living what they unequivocally call Plan B. Host Ira Glass expounds his thoughts on an informal poll and a seemingly universal human reality. He asked a room of a hundred people to think back to the beginning of adulthood when they were first formulating a plan for their lives. He called it Plan A, “the fate you were sure fate had in store.” He then asked those who were still following this plan to raise their hands. Only one person confessed she was still living Plan A; she was 23 years old.

Source: Jill Carattini, “Redirection,” A Slice of Infinity (7-5-17).

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