- Psalm 37:23 (NIV) If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm...
- Jer. 10:23( NIV) I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps
It was D.D. Eisenhower who said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Planning. Indispensable. Sometimes, even after all the careful plans, one "throws the dice" to determine a decision since one course of action cannot be weighed effectively against another--the correct one cannot be determined. Mintzberg & Quinn have observed that the planning process plays a key role in strategy formation and a well-structured process will provide a framework for change management. Good planning is vital to an organization's health and growth.
One quote from their work strikes me as important in the context of the verses above: "Strategy deals with the unknowable, not the uncertain." Business leaders work hard at looking at patterns, factors, trends, research, known and unknown needs - elements, among others that go into plans; but they do not know the future. God does. When success comes from great strategy formulation AND implementation, man often takes the credit - robbing God of his Holiness.
Self-propelled plans produce death. If it is about me or us (as a firm) and not about God, it is worth nothing. Eternity matters, now. Even with planning, nothing happens anywhere without God's involvement - either as a sovereign directed authority of sovereign permission, His sovereignty is so majestic that we don't understand how our freedom, even to commit sin, can be used by Him for His glory. Although He does not author sin, His purposes are so powerful that He allows man's rebellion to achieve His eternal paradigm.
The Christian business leader should use good planning and management techniques to control the business: but s/he does this with the absolute certainty that the LORD determines the outcome. Because God does that, this in no way excuses people from planning, thinking, strategizing. In fact, His Word has much to say about that strength of counselors when formulating plans. A new way of thinking might include this formula: Plan. Pray. Practice. Perform. Pray. Ponder (what is God saying is this performance about Himself and about my role in His kingdom?) Pray. Perform. (The 8 Ps of Planning). There is a constant here: our Creator cares; His care continually calms our concerns when we practice prayer.
It is Jeremiah's assertion that strikes me as a life-changing realization. His life was by no means, from the Worlds' point of view, enviable. But he understood what God called him to do - and he did it, sometimes kicking and screaming, but always with the resolute understanding that God is sovereign and loving and caring and Holy.
Believers rest in the promise in Psalm 37 - we must first think about what we do as "Lord-delighting-plans" - and then marshal our people to plan - developing the discipline for our managers to look ahead and to be intentional about communicating goal progress, resource allocation and the impact of short-term plans on the vision and mission (the strategy) of the organization, remembering that strategy begins in the heart.
Planning is good. Praying is essential.
Copyright (c) 2005 by P. Griffith Lindell
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