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The Best Laid Plans


“As the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.    ~Isaiah 55:9

I am sure I have mentioned this verse in my blog before. 

I am positive I have talked with my teens about this verse before. 

I know I have prayed this verse before, reminding both myself and any listeners what I believed. 

And yet....

I have to admit that I struggle with this verse. Not in theory, but in action. Not in thought, but in deed. Not with others, but with myself. Yes, if you read that last line correctly, you'll see I have very little problem seeing God as better than you. It's remembering that God is better than me that is sometimes the problem. 

Again, not in theory. I preach it, I write it, I read it...I believe it. But I'm not sure I always own it. Because I can't explain the fatigue I sometimes feel for the work that needs to be done. If I, and collectively we, were to live this verse out, I have to believe that we would depend so much more on God to tell us what to think. We would rely so much more on God to reveal to us the plan. We would, and there's really no good excuse for why we don't. 

The thing I love about this verse is the description that goes along. It's the comparison that, in reality, only begins to describe the world of difference between our thoughts and God's thoughts. We read it is 'as far as the heavens are above the earth.' 

Let's be honest. It's a long way. I could throw numbers at you, but honestly I'm too lazy to open another browser window to look it up. And besides, you've had numbers thrown at you. You know that it's a long distance between heaven and earth. We can join Belinda Carlisle all we want in wishing heaven was a place on earth, but we know it;s not. 

Heaven is a long way from where we are. Believe it? Now keep in mind that's how much higher God's ways and thoughts are than the best laid plans we have. To quote Robert Burns;

The best laid schemes of mice and menGo often awry,

To quote Solomon;

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. ~Proverbs 19:21
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