Planning for the Future

An Ibo lady once said to me:

"Man proposes, God disposes"

lol! I never heard it said like this before. But she was referring to the idea from Lamentations that who can plan? in the end its whatever God wants.

So how can we plan? This kind of argument can cause people to live day by day not hoping for much. But there is a way to circumvent it.

I think by adding the Godly factor in the proposition, it eliminates His inclination to "dispose".

(1) sighing. Just like life was put into us by His Divine Breath, so we too can put life into things by focusing on what we lack.. and then sighing. Of course it may take a while. But the important thing is to have it on our minds and in our hearts and truly yearn.

(2) Connecting our physical pursuits to a spiritual conquest. By connecting to something deeper, it gives our goal more credibility-- to ourselves. rather than simply, "I want jewelry!" so we can "look good", it'll be more, "I want jewelry!" to represent a positive godly image, for example.

(3) Praying out about 500 reasons why we ought to achieve x. The first 5 or even 10 reasons will be 'store bought' reason -other people's borrowed reasons, but as you continue to seek other reasons why you should achieve x, you'll either realize in your heart that this is for you (i.e. waking up that Godly part of you in the planning!) or you'll realize this is not for you.

For example, if you want to convince others that say Michelle Obama is not a representative of all BW and shouldn't be, the first five or ten reasons will be stuff we 'bought' from someone. With those reasonings alone, whoever that seems more significant than that first person can come and say the total opposite that will be the end of that! But as you get down w/more and more reasonings, your heart will provide you with the real reasons YOU feel Michelle ought not represent all BW. Again, to connect your goal/ideas to God or at least the Godly part within you so that no 'other' can come and wash it all away with their reasonings.

(4) The big cure all: Charity. Charity brings blessings. Either you give to people on the streets- lets call them the undeserving. You can also give to a worthy cause- deserving people. Either way is a win win. For the undeserved charity, you get undeserved goods- random blessings. For the deserved- exact Blessings.

Anyway the theme here is that our goals have to be connected to something deeper otherwise its just... a man proposing.