Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the phrase, “The best-laid plans of mice & men often go awry.” It is interesting how we like to think we have control & manage the outcomes of life, & yet in this phrase, the greatness of humanity is placed on an equal playing field with the planning abilities of mice. Numerous unaccountable things can & do happen in life, even as we try to plan for every eventuality & possibility. We have had many such things to navigate of late, from changes in staff, unexpected hiccups that perhaps many never know of, the random illness or off-day in energy, & the best-laid plans for a holy season of Lent turned into a reminder that in our humanity, we cannot control all the uncontrollable outcomes. The best-laid plans of mice & men often go awry.
It is humbling to realize & reflect on this truth. The act of reflecting is most important during this season of journeying to the heart. The hubris of the heart that thinks it can plan for every outcome & eventuality is reminded of its humanity when those plans have hiccups or never come to fruition. I think of the plans established when the buildings we worship within were first placed on this property. And I cannot imagine those plans intended for these buildings to be a forever plan for the Song of Life United Methodist Church. Yet, in the best-laid plans, things go awry.
I wonder, however, if in these buildings that weren’t the long-term plan, & in the hiccups of the immediate plans that have seemingly gone awry, what God is calling for us to learn & grow in so that we might be closer to the cross of Christ? In the poem that this quote of men & mice comes from, Robert Burns writes of a mouse whose home is destroyed by the farmer’s plow. What does it mean that our home, our church, isn’t what we’d like it to be even as the plow of God continues to till the hearts & souls of those who live in this church called Song of Life? Put another way, what is the growing edge for us as we experience the challenges & changes of life not going quite the way we’d like during this season? After all, the quote doesn’t tell us a thing about the best-laid plans of our God. The Bible talks of the plans of people & the plans of God like this:
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” – Proverbs 19:21
In Christ’s Love,
