A good reminder.

It is commonly known that divers believed firmly in the axiom, “Plan your dive. Dive your plan.” It is a generally accepted truth that when you go into the wild, an unfamiliar environment and do not know what to expect, you certainly cannot control it. So, a plan is important. On top of it, keeping to the plan is as important.

How should I begin? Plan the dive, it is.

In this context, I supposed, planning is the easier task. Anyone can do so. It probably is a matter of a want-or-not or a good-or-bad plan. We can all talk about something to the best of our knowledge, to envision a future, to dream or wish for something and find a way to get to somewhere. Moreover, in today’s fast paced environment, there is always help available almost everywhere. People sell inspirations and ideas for dreaming big, goal-setting or some form of starter-kit for good planning. Consultants and management agencies provide all range of services to aid in goal setting and planning. There are even self-help books, templates readily available to set goals and come up with a good plan with checklists for making good plans endorsed by some guru.

Now, dive the plan.

We call it implementation or execution. This requires involvement, patience, discipline and focus. However, our carnality seems to work against us. We are easily distracted and the determinent can really be anything under the sun, moon and stars! God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31a). The plan that God had for Adam and Eve, for creation, was very good but Man was and is not contented with what was given very good, we are distracted and easily deceived by our own needs and wants. We want more than very good. We want what seems to be greener on the other side of the grass. We let the serpent has its way into our ears and hearts to affect our minds. Then we hide away from God in guilt and shame when we hear His footsteps, when we hear Him call our names, if we can even hear Him anymore, by His grace. The goal was supposedly clear, the plan was supposedly simple but distractions took us away so easily that we no longer remember the goal, we no longer need the plan. Maybe this is a bad example, it happened too long ago. Maybe we can talk about what is happening today. I ought to have at least finish reading the bible twenty times, having made a new year’s resolution every year for the last twenty years of my walk with God. The goal was simple, the plan was easy. But the outcome from the execution thus far showed that diving the plan was excruciatingly difficult. I can probably just be unashamed and confess that I have completed reading Chapter 1 of the book of Genesis, at the least, twenty times. I may just be the odd one out here, scrambling to keep my faith in tact by making resolutions year after year and failing to follow through just a bible reading plan. So pardon me if my examples do not make any sense to you.

By His grace, I am reminded. His still small voice calling out to me to keep me in check. It is easy to be forgetful. It is easy to drift away. The goal was not even something that complicated or difficult and the plan was to keep my eyes on the goal. This time and space set aside is for nothing else but God. I am brought back to this place and Psalm 4 sums it all.

Answer Me When I Call
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men,[a] how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry,[b] and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Lord, let my prayer be as the psalmist’s. Let the praises from my lips be counted as incense before You and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart incline to any evil, indulge myself in wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity and let me not eat of their delicacies.

Plan the dive, dive the plan. This, I can do, only with Your favor, by Your grace.

His beautiful & relentless love makes a soul relentlessly beautiful.