So Much for Planners

Since the school year started I’ve bought two planners for myself. The first one was too small. After having breakfast with a friend and talking my frustration with time management, I drove to Walmart and bought a bigger planner. Excited to get life in order, I transferred everything to my bigger, better one. I felt good to go. Organized.

Until last Friday!

In my planner I had written to pick up my daughter and her two classmates after school. Did I pick them up? Yes and no. I picked them up–but 30 minutes late. I drove to the wrong location at the wrong time. I forgot I was driving. Thankfully the kids were cool with my mistake. I felt terrible.

So much for my organized planner!

I didn’t use it.

My 6th grader Hannah writes in her planner every day at school. Does she use it? Yes and no. Sure she writes in it. Sometimes even in her best writing with cute drawings of faces or animals. But often times that’s where it ends. Like yesterday, she lost points in art class for not bringing in an art shirt. She wasn’t happy. For a week straight, Hannah wrote in her planner “art shirt due Tuesday.” I’m sure she saw the reminder everyday but she never grabbed a shirt.

Why? I’m not sure, maybe I’ll ask her.

Sometimes my spiritual life is like this. I read the Word but that’s where it ends. I don’t apply what it says. Nothing changes. And I miss appointments and opportunities. What good is it to know something and live it out? Like loving for example, if I know God loves me but I hoard that love who else benefits? No one.

I am NOT saying use a planner for your spiritual life. God is bigger than that. I believe our lives are relational, not bound a calendar of events and times. But I do see a similarity in principle to having a planner and not using it and God’s word and not using it.

How many times do I read the Bible and not “do” what it says?

A lot.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1:22-24 (NIV)

Heavenly Father, enable me to live out what really matters. I’m tired of reading your Word and leaving it there. Capture my heart in such a way that your love compels me to live differently. Every time I see my reflection remind me of who I am. May your words and your love soak so deeply into my heart that they overflow into the lives of others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.