So recently, I've been thinking a lot about the future.  I've been thinking about what my life will look like in 5 years.  Real life seems so far away, but in all reality, It's only 2 and a half more years.  So, I've been thinking about where I'll live and what kind of a job I'll have and where all of my friends will be and how long it will take me to reach my goals.  Needless to say, I've been planning.  I guess it's what I do.  When something scares me, I sit down and I plan it.  I'm scared about getting married, so I plan my wedding.  I'm scared about having a family, so I plan out what I will dress them in and what crafty things we will do together.  I'm scared about opening up a coffee shop, so I plan what it will look like.  I plan.  I'm scared about my future, so I plan it all out.  But there's one thing about planning things, they never happen the way you plan, and then you're left disappointed.

I was talking to a friend of mine a couple of days ago, and we were talking about the future and planning for it.  He then brought up 2 Peter 3:10 which says:

"But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment."

 

That's the thing. The day of the Lord  of the Lord will come unexpectedly.  Who knows if I will even be alive in 5 years.  Who knows if I'll still be here in a week.  We cannot plan for anything, it's already all planned out for us.  But then arises the question of if God already has a plan for us, how do we live our lives?  Do we just drift through life, saying that we can't plan anything, and so we will do tomorrow what we feel like God wants us to do?  Or do we sit down and say that if the Lord wills it, I will be owning and operating a coffee shop in 5 years?  How do we live, if we can't plan?  Where is the line between planning and trusting?  I'm not saying that by planning I don't trust God, because I do, wholeheartedly.  I know that He has a plan for me and that it is beautiful and perfect, but how do I aline my life with that plan?  How do I go after my hopes and dreams if can't plan and I don't know what God's plan is?  And not even the stuff that is years away.  What about next week?  Can I plan that I'm going to leave CN on the 14th and stay at Liz's house and then drive the rest of the way home on the 15th?  Or do I just do it when the time comes, giving no one any notice of what is happening.  How do we live our lives if we can't plan?

Part of me thinks that this is where the whole "in the world, but not of it" verse comes in.  I think that this world thrives off of planning.  As a little kid, you plane to grow up.  As a teenager, you plan to go to college.  As a young adult, you plan to get married.  As a middle-aged employee, you plan for your retirement.  And as an elderly person, you plan for your death.  We plan.  It's what we do.  It's what we've always known.  But what if it's not what we're supposed to do.  What if we are supposed to live our lives one day at a time?  Never actually looking to the future, but knowing that the future is secure in God's hands.  I was thinking about this yesterday as I was working on a homework assignment where we are supposed to plan a budget for out future.  If we're always looking to the future, how much of our lives are we missing?  How much of the present flies by us without us even noticing, because we are too preoccupied with the future?