The Perfect Planner

I trust in you, LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands.

At the end of every year my favorite aisle in the bookstore is the one stacked high with planners, which are always placed just below the racks of wall calendars. There is an organizer for everyone: students, moms, professionals, and athletes. Some feature weekly or daily spreads; others show a month at a time. I’m always drawn first to the ones with the artsy colorful covers. When I pick up one of those, I imagine how inspired I’d be by its beautiful design.

In the end, though, I always end up buying the newest edition of the same spiral-bound weekly planner because I like its layout best. I can block out meetings in a way that gives me a visual overview of how much uninterrupted work time I have each day. There is also plenty of room to take notes.

Still, every year I search for that perfect planner that will help me not only organize my schedule but perfect it. Maybe, I think, someone has invented a tool that will help me overcome all my bad habits while faithfully working in the good ones. Maybe I’ll stumble across a planner that will magically reveal time in my day that I never knew I had—or at least help me organize my days so well that I’ll be able to fit even more into my schedule.

Deep inside, I know that ideal planner doesn’t exist. And I’m okay with that. God didn’t create you and me to be automatons who never stop working or never relax and enjoy our families. He created stars to mark the passage of seasons and years, and He made a world that operates within the limits of time.

Planners, digital or paper, are wonderful tools that can help us steward the coming year well. They can remind us of our obligations and our priorities. However, they will never enable us to run the universe. Thankfully, that job is already taken: Our Lord Jesus “existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:17).

That’s good news we can plan on and rest in every day in the year ahead!

Rest Assured

Lord Jesus, I commit this coming year to You, knowing that You go ahead of me and will cover me with Your mercy and grace.

Rest in Him: Proverbs 16:1-9