How much should we plan in life? How flexible do we need to be? To answer this simply, both planning and flexibility are needed. How much of each do you need in your life to feel comfortable? To accomplish all the tasks in your life? To manage the unexpected? It can be hard to balance these competing pulls on your life, energy and time. You are not alone in this struggle.
Jesus has purposed to spend time with His disciples. But His plans get interrupted by the crowds who gather from the four winds to get something from Jesus. Jesus wants to give to His disciples and the crowds rush in and take over His attention.
Jesus has plans for this time, but the crowds introduce a new plan. Jesus has to be flexible. Jesus must know that there is no way for Him to avoid the crowds at this moment. His plans must be set aside.
But notice that Jesus still makes some new plans. Jesus assesses the situation, the gathering crowds and the potential rush to get close to Him, and He devises a plan. He is there by the lake, and several of His disciples used to be fishermen. He tells the disciples to get a small boat ready. He could use it to push out from the shore in case the crowds get too great.
I can see two things we can learn from our passage today. It is OK to make plans. Order in the middle of chaos is acceptable. Many of us try to control what we can when things get overwhelming. This is often where compulsive behaviors start. In the middle of a crisis, when things are overwhelming, we grab onto something to try to keep us stable. We use something to help us get through, and then we repeat the action the next time something similar arises. Compulsive behaviors usually make sense when we understand when they got started.
But when the old way of coping, the old plan doesn’t work in the current situation, it is time to become more flexible. It is necessary when circumstances change for new plans to be developed. It is OK to take precautions,.
The other thing I learn is that it is OK to plan ahead in ministry. You don’t need to be in some hyper spiritual mode to be in the middle of God’s will. Jesus saw the crowds coming and the future possibility of them overwhelming Him physically, and He made a plan. When we plan, we need to think about alternate plans, to brainstorm the “what if’s”. This does not indicate a lack of faith, or a lack of responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. It is just following Jesus’ example.
The Arnold Journey 