Five Year Plan

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ –Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30

Years ago, when I was a student at App State (that’s Appalachian State University, for those of you who don’t know and incidentally is pronounced ‘app-uh-LAH-chun’ not ‘app-uh-LAY-chun,’ but that’s really neither here nor there) I was involved with a campus ministry called Westminster-Canterbury Fellowship, or just WCF for short. We were sponsored by both the Presbyterian Church (USA) (thus the Westminster) and the Episcopalian Church (thus Canterbury) and housed people of all backgrounds and beliefs. One of the best events of the semester were our annual retreats; Fall Retreat in the fall, and Spring Retreat in—you guessed it—the spring. During one Spring Retreat we used the above verse as our theme, and one of the activities we did was to make Future Plans. So, I’ll admit I can’t really remember how the verses from Matthew fit into the 5-, 10-, and 15-year plans I made, but I marked the verses in my Bible and have been carrying around the sheet of yellow legal pad paper with said plans for years now. I think it had something to do with the principle that, yes, with Christ we don’t need to worry and his burden is light, but also, God can’t steer a parked car so it helps to have some sort of direction. As I turned 26 the other day, I realized that it was time to review my Five Year Plan. As I reviewed all I could think of was the saying, ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.’ Well, I know I laughed and I’m sure God laughed and now I’m posting this in the hopes that maybe you’ll laugh. Let’s review, shall we?

Lynnea's Five Year Plan:

1) Married with a honeymoon in New Zealand. (No, although I’m still open to this idea.)

2) Looking towards owning a house. (Definitely not. Sorry, Mom, my stuff will just have to stay in the basement.)

3) Good job with the recreation department in Raleigh. (Okay, this one had some merit. I was going to do my internship with the Raleigh, NC, Park and Rec. Dept. and then was going to get a job with them. Too bad I never even got as far as the internship.)

4) $40,000+ income. (How I was gonna do this based on #3, I have no idea, but one can dream.)

5) One or two dogs. (Sadly, no.)

6) NICE CAR!!! (Okay, this is the only one I can kinda cross off the list! I had a nice car: a brand new 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sport with leatherette interior, moonroof, and amazing sound system. It had 19 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the lot. Then I moved to Belfast and signed the title over to my Dad. Goodness knows how many miles he’s put on it since August. Chances of me getting Jayne the B.A. Jetta back when I return to the States: slim.)

7) Play the fiddle. (Survey says: no. Might help if I had ever had access to a fiddle.)

So there’s my Five Year Plan, exactly as I had drawn it up in April of 2005. I have a Ten Year Plan, too, so I’ll probably post that in another 5 years. As I look back on it, it’s easy to get discouraged in one sense. I’ve done nearly nothing that I had planned to do. I have no job, no significant other, no car, no house, not even a pet. But I get to live and work in Belfast, Northern Ireland, doing reconciliation ministry with youth and adults. I get the opportunity to study things first hand that I’ve only ever read about. I get to travel. I get write great blog posts.

If you had told me 5 years ago that I would in fact get to live out my Five Year Plan I probably would’ve been very excited. Now, if you told me I had to go back to that Five Year Plan I’d probably throw up. I definitely never thought I’d be here, but it’s good. God is good. I think I’ll let him make the plans now.