My Plan vs. God's Plan

Recently I was preparing another flight to fly on my Flight Simulator game. I was planning the flight in southern New Mexico, and on this first leg I'd fly from Las Cruses (just above El Paso) west and a little north to Silver City. I figured it'd be about a half hour flight.

So here I am plotting my flight plan. For some strange reason Flight Simulator was taking me SOUTH to Deming area then north to Silver City. Why in the world was it doing that? As I said, I only have half hour of computer time. I didn't want to take the long route to Silver City, I wanted to take the fastest and most direct route! So I plotted my flight plan to go northwest from Las Cruses and then straight west right into Silver City's longest runway. Perfect, right?

Well, not exactly. I hadn't really thought about terrain, that southern New Mexico might possibly have mountains above my cruising altitude of 8,000 ft. And my very direct flight plan pointed me straight over mountains, which, unknowingly right now, that I'd crash into!



So here I go starting the flight. I'm throughly happy following my direct flight plan, happily looking at the GPS, which told me I had enough time to get to Silver City. Yes, I saw a mountain range, but it's not in my way, right? :P Then Air Traffic Control (ATC) tells me to make a 40 degree turn to the south. As I know the ATC will bug me forever if I don't obey them, I followed their directions and started flying south. But I still couldn't understand why I was flying south. I needed to go west! Well, after a while of following the ATC and looking out my window at how close those mountains were, I started to get a picture of why the ATC was taking me south! They still wanted me to get to my airport as fast as I could, just not at the cost of my (virtual) safety. And yes, once I had skirted the mountains the ATC took me straight into Silver City. :)

I've been thinking about this experience. My flight simulator had originally charted the ideal flight plan. Ignorant of this fact, I charted what I thought was the "better" flight plan, unknowingly setting me up to crash into mountains. Even when I got into the air I was stubborn! The ATC had told me that I should come from the south and land on runway 35. I told them I wanted to come in on runway 26! Even with disobedient me in the situation, the ATC saw the situation better than I did. They were concerned about my safety, not just my quick arrival.

I've been thinking about this some more. In the spiritual realm, God is our Air Traffic Control. He is up above and truly has the best view on things. He has some great plans for us! In Jeremiah 29:11 God says,

"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."

We humans down on earth plan our course a lot of times. Or shall I say, all the time! Sometimes our plans are good, but sometimes they are contrary to what God would want for us. In Proverbs 16:9 the great king Solomon talks about this:

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

God knows the end from the beginning. He sees how a particular course we're taking might lead to our demise or destruction or deterioration of life. That's when he steps in and quietly suggests that we need to go another way. He will never force us, tell us we must do something. But sometimes even with a still small voice he tells us what we need to do. Sometimes it may seem like God is taking us south, when we want to go west! Sometimes it might seem like God is asking us to do something totally opposite from our own plans. But then we need to remember that God can see the end from the beginning, and He only ever looks out for a best interests. We need to remember that if we trust Him, God will guide us safely to our destinations and goals. We need to remember that God, up above, sees things that we do not.

Mountains, for example.