When God Laughs

I'm a planner; I just can't help it. I haven't decided if it's just me that feels the need to plan things, or if it's everyone else too. I feel the need to plan lots of things, whether it be what I'm supposed to do and when, or what I aim to do with the rest of my life. Recently, I was talking to my sister and I found she also felt the need to plan what she was going to do with the rest of her life. Maybe I wasn't so crazy, after all.

Not too long ago, I was sharing my plans with my mom. I was telling her all about where I was going to college, where I was going to travel and what I was going to do. I even knew what I was going to paint my house and what furniture I wanted after college. I was giving her the whole nine yards of my life. Yet in the end of my tale of my future life, she stated something that I hadn't thought of. "What if that doesn't happen?" I hadn't exactly thought about what would happen if my plans didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. I asked her what she meant by that, and she elaborated.

According to her, what she meant wasn't just a question, it was more the question beneath the question. She asked me the same question, but worded it differently, "What if God doesn't have that happen?" That was another question I hadn't thought of. I had never thought about God changing my plans. After all, doesn't He want me to be happy? I let this idea of God having a different plan for me roll over inside my head for quite a few days. But what if I didn't want God to have a different plan for me? When I had thought about this for about a week, I finally became okay with God having a different plan for me. It reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my friends. At youth group one night, we were talking about how God takes control of your life. My best friend Beth said that whenever she began to think about what she wanted to do and what plans she had, she could hear God saying something. She painted a picture of what He was like when He was getting back at her plans. This is how she described what He said to her, "Haha, Beth, you so funny!" Those were the words she used whenever she talked about God changing her plans.

God laughs at us when we think that we can take our lives into our own hands. Every time we begin to plan something and try to go in our direction, God says, "Haha, you so funny!" It took me a little while to figure out that when I attempt to plan something, that God laughs at me because He knows His plan. He knows that He is going to shake up my world whenever I try to plan something, because He wants to show me how awesome He is. Even though God is going to do whatever His plan is, I've found a verse that shows God has two sides to His plan:

"Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4

Yes, God does laugh at us when we try to make our own plans without Him. We have to trust in Him, knowing that He has an even greater plan for us than we can even imagine. And while God is making His plans for us, when we delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts.