Article February 3, 1992 Issue

What is the best plan for your life?

When things don't go as we expect, is that always bad?

Susan Stark

Everyone has plans and dreams. But if our well-laid plans fall apart, we might begin to ask ourselves questions. Questions like "Why didn't this turn out the way I had hoped?" In my own life, I've had plans that have failed because I tried to push them through with willpower. Looking back, I am glad that some of my schemes didn't work out. That way, I have been taught a little more about the difference between God's will and human will.

So what is wrong with human will? Isn't it essential for survival? Many consider it as the ingredient that gives an individual drive, stamina, and the ability to accomplish goals. Not all successful people, though, could be described as willful.

Though he knew what he needed to accomplish and did it with unsurpassed ability, Christ Jesus was not a willful or a passive person. In some of his parables Jesus praised the qualities of persistence and initiative; yet he never related them to human will. More often, it was listening to and obeying God that Jesus brought out in his teaching. Regarding his own life motive, he said, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."

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