We humans always seem to want to plan out our lives. We want everything to be perfect, done the way we want it, when we want it. But I think we are like this because we want things to be predictable, because we want things to be in our control, because when things are out of our control they have the potential to harm us and others – there is the possibility of chaos, and that is something I think many of us really fear. It may also be that we have been so out of control of our own lives for so long – that others have been controlling our lives – to the point that we now feel as if we have to make sure we can control every aspect of our lives. But that kind of mindset can just be detrimental to our own good. We need to break that cycle.

The thing about life is that you can plan and plan and plan. You can plan every minuscule detail, and yet there will always be something that does not go to plan. And there is a real beauty in that. Because to go through life as just a plan is basically just like checking off boxes on a to-do list. There is nothing exciting or joyful about that. It’s so mundane. To live life trust in God’s plan for your life though is so exciting, because it leaves room for the unexpected. It leaves room for really good and beautiful things to take place. It allows God to work in your life so that you can be truly happy, truly fulfilled. 

We cannot force life. Because to seek to control every aspect of our lives is not only exhausting and both mentally and physically draining, but it also does not allow God to really work in our lives. In a way we are trying to control things rather than allowing Him to take control and trusting in Him that He will being about good in our lives. And that may not always be in the way we want it or how we want it. And that can be hard for us to deal with because we always want instant gratification. We always want things to happen when we want them to happen and in the way we want them to happen. We want things to be in our control, because when they are out of our control we can start to become anxious, we can start to worry that everything in our lives is going to go wrong, that we’re not going to end up happy. But that’s not true. That’s purely irrational, because such thought is not of God.

God wants what is best for us. He is a loving Father who cares deeply and greatly for each one of us. And He guides us along each step of our journey through life, which has its ultimate end in union with Him in eternal happiness. He wants us to enjoy life, but we must also realise that we cannot really truly enjoy life if we are spending our time trying to control every aspect of it and plan for every part of it and every possible outcome. Sometimes we can become so caught up in doing this that we fail to actually live. We fail to live in each moment, to cherish each moment – and each moment is given to us by God. We spend so much time worrying about the future, about what could go wrong, about everything else, that we don’t just take the time to appreciate the moment of life we are in, to live in that moment and be grateful for it.

Each one of us thinks we know what is best for our own lives. But we don’t. We’re stupid human beings who really don’t know. We can barely make decisions about small things in our day-to-day lives. We argue over the most inane stuff. We do some really stupid things. How can we possibly know what is truly best for us? We can’t. But God can. And so we must trust in Him. Always. We are all lost without His Fatherly guidance. And so we must surrender to it, allowing Him to bring about the fulfillment of His plan for our lives.

And so this is what we as humans should do. Because happiness is not found in ideals about the future, but in the joys of the present. And yeah, it’s hard to surrender our lives to God and allow Him to take control, because it’s scary to not know what might happen, to not know for certain what each day of our lives, what the future, may hold. But God is good, and He wants what is good for us, and His plan for each one of our lives is GOOD. And so we must ask ourselves, is our relationship with God one where we are trying to take control, one where we are wrestling with Him for control, or one where we are surrendering to Him and allowing Him to bring about His plan for our lives? Because when we surrender our life to God and trust Him and His plan for our life completely, we open ourselves up to whatever may come by His grace, and we know that whatever may come will be good, and that it will be perfect for us.

I think something we all come to realise at some point in our lives is that there are important lessons to be learned in life – lessons that God wants us to learn and helps us to learn in one way or another. Sometimes it is necessary for us to endure some kind of struggle, some kind of suffering, some kind of challenge or difficulty, in order to understand God and His plan for our life. While it is difficult to see any kind of purpose or meaning in such trials in the moments in which we face them, we eventually come to realise that we had to endure them to reach this point where we understand that there is a greater value to living life within the context of God’s plan for it, rather than our plan for it. And I speak here from experience. I had a plan for my life. I know plenty of others who have had plans for their lives. Did those plans play out as I and they had planned? No. Because as much as we may try, we can never really plan out our life to a tee. I thought I would be a full-time journalist working for some media outlet right now with a stable income and everything. But God had other plans – now I’m about to go into a Master’s program working towards culmination in entry into and completion of a Doctoral program. Do I know for certain I’m going to achieve all that and achieve it all smoothly? Not at all. But I trust in God’s plan for my life, whatever that may be, because I know that it will be good. 

And yes, it took going through some pretty challenging things mentally over the past couple of months to realise this, to truly understand it, but now I do, and I am sharing this because I feel God has put it on my heart to share, because I know that there are people out there who are probably struggling with the same thing who need to hear this. I know there are people out there who are probably anxious about their future, who are trying to plan everything out to the second because they want to feel a sense of reassurance that everything is going to be okay, that they have control over their lives. But here’s the thing – none of us can ever truly have complete control over our lives. We can plan all we want, but something will undoubtedly go astray – probably many things actually. When this happens, we can become so upset and distraught. But we need to learn to be okay with things not going the way we were hoping and planning they would. We need to learn that we cannot control everything. In fact, when we seek to control everything instead of allowing God to take the reins, we begin to demonstrate a lack of trust in God and His will, His plan for our lives. We need to surrender it all to God – to surrender the present and the future to Him – so that we may live well in the present and be prepared by Him for the future. Because everything will come, but not in our timing – rather, in His. And God’s timing is always perfect. He knows when we are ready. He knows our capabilities and capacities. And He will give us the most beautiful things when He deems us to be ready for them.

Surrender your life totally to God, let Him enact His plan for your life, and trust that it will always be good. Because it will be, even if you don’t believe it. Because He has got you, always, no matter what. And, quite honestly, His plan tends to always be better than our own.