When Plans Fail: Remember, God Promises a Better One

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.”
― Claire Cook

If your first plan fails, it is tempting to come up with plan B or C or D…until one works. But God has already scripted a better one. 

If your first plan fails, it is tempting to come up with plan B or C or D...until one works. But God has already scripted a better one. Share on X

I’m a Planner

I’ve always been a planner.

Beginning shortly after we met and continuing even now, my husband (then boyfriend) and I would lay out detailed maps and meticulously plan our canoe routes through the remote Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. From the exact dates we’d put in and take out to which lakes we’d camp on and how many provisions we’d need, it all had to be carefully determined. Our success and enjoyment—and even safety—depended on our planning.

With similar fervor, I mapped out what my life would look like. To me, it seemed that easy. The map was the whole of my lifespan. The routes, my desires. The destinations, my goals.

To be healthy, I’d eat right and exercise.

To obtain a wildlife biologist job, I’d get my degree and work my way up. For a strife-free marriage, I’d simply find the right man.

To live in the country, again, I’d marry the right man.

To have the seven children I desired, once again, I simply needed to marry the right man and not wait too long to start our family.

I always believed in God, but for a third of my life, He didn’t seem to figure into the smaller aspects of my life. Be a good person, check. Work hard, check. Attend church…most Sundays, check. Have a good plan, check. Voila! Simply follow the map.

A detour in that plan meant I missed something in the design process. When something unexpected happened, I simply needed to recalibrate and continue on, or so I thought. Life soon showed me differently.

The Expected End

Now 30-plus years later, I’m living the unexpected, uninvited, unplanned-for life, and the Lord is teaching me that even my best plans pale in comparison to His.

Now 30-plus years later, I'm living the unexpected, uninvited, unplanned-for life, and the Lord is teaching me that even my best plans pale in comparison to His. Share on X

He’s showing me that I don’t need to have all the steps laid out. I don’t need to know the best route through the marsh or around the waterfall. I don’t need to resort to plans E and F. 

He’s assuring me that He has it already drawn out. And He’s promised me that His is a good plan for my future. Often quoted for graduations, Jeremiah 29:11 promises that very thing:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (NIV).

But even more than the Bible translations that state He has plans to give us “hope and a future,” I love the wording in the King James Version: God promises to give us “an expected end.”

^“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11, KJV

My life is not unexpected, but expected: planned for, lovingly drawn out by our Creator. When we run our circumstances through the lens of the King James version of Jeremiah 29:11, they aren’t unexpected at all. God uses those unexpected situations as a means to an expected end, our hope-filled future. 

God uses our unexpected situations as a means to an expected end, our hope-filled future. Share on X

Plan, but Hold Those Plans Loosely

So go ahead and plan. I will. Honestly, I can’t help it. But don’t worry if you’re on plan C and that seems to be failing too. God has a better way. 

We can hold our plans loosely, because God knows our expected end; in fact, He scripted it. And that script, it’s good, even if we can’t see the good right now. It’s good because our Lord is a good, good God, and He is all knowing and all powerful to make it happen. 

We can hold our plans loosely, because God knows our expected end; in fact, He scripted it. And that script, it's good, even if we can't see the good right now. Share on X

Lord, You have a plan for me, and it is a good plan. You know my expected end, that time and place that will fulfill all my desires. I need not worry about what’s to come or despair about what is now because nothing surprises You and nothing can thwart the ending You have planned for me. Help me rest in Your sovereignty, trusting in Your love and goodness.

Reflections: How does knowing the Lord has an “expected end” for you give you hope and the strength to keep moving forward even during the most difficult days?