Planning

Planning

God of our future, show me your way. Make our plans wise.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

God has plans to prosper his people. His human leaders, serving under his call, also make plans, seeking to bring the affairs of this world into closer conformity with God’s eternal and perfect plan.

SHOW me your way for us, God. In all the data, there are patterns I must see. Among the many indicators, there are wise directions I must choose. By your grace I must peer through the foggy confusion and glimpse the light glimmering far ahead. Help me to choose the right path and head toward the right marker. If I am wrong, we could be obliterated. Guide me.

Wisdom alone will not automatically make our plans easy to adopt or implement. Inevitably, wise planning will require us to act before it is completely apparent that we need to do so. For most of us, that will be hard to do, and it will be frightening for some. The comfort and security of the present that we worked so hard to create will try to seduce us. Nostalgia for our past will tempt us to stay there. Help me instill a longing for our future the way you see it. Carry us forward, God.

Help us to let go of the present we worked so hard for, the present we asked you for, so that we may embrace a new and better future. Prepare us to accept some chaos in the short run in order to make things better in the long run, to take resources that could feed our present strengths and current welfare and risk them on an uncertain future.

As the leader, I speak for the future, and I love planning to get there. But this is very painful and threatening for some. Help me use the planning process to bring them along. Give me planning wisdom, God.

Help us to move fast enough to reach our best future in time for it to matter. But let us move wisely enough that we can all stay together. Our inheritance lies yet ahead. Oh, God, help us claim it. I am looking for your guiding light.

God of our future, show me your way. Make our plans wise.

Reflections

The president pointed to a large box on his credenza. “We need an institutional plan,” he explained. “I have been collecting the stuff in that box for over a year. Our plan is in that box. I want you to find it and write it down for us. I will be praying for you.” He was absolutely serious.

I spent the whole summer in my basement with that box—plus a lot of additional material—creating the initial discussion draft of a comprehensive plan to advance the organization. The president was a strong spiritual leader, but he had no heart for the drudgery of planning. When I brought in the draft, he thanked me and confirmed that he had indeed been praying for me.

In countless settings I have asked participants to describe the kind of leader they would personally follow. Not once has anyone ever said that the ideal leader should be a great planner. What they do always identify is vision, the enhanced ability to describe the present situation and the desired future in a way that inspires action. I do not fault my presidential friend for asking me to draft his plan. He sensed that a plan was needed, and he made sure one was developed. In time the vision was refined, and with his support it became a wonderful reality. I am convinced that his prayer truly enabled the planning process to create a compelling vision that became a new corporate reality.