Plans and Prison

I am writing a business plan for a friend.  (No, the friend is not in prison - thanks for asking).  We are trying to project income, expenses, time lines, and what to do if the plans he is making don't work out.  In other words, what is Plan B?  What is Plan C?  What about Plan D?


We need plans.  I think of how many plans I make daily, weekly, monthly.  There are cleaning plans, meal plans, hobby plans, work plans, spending plans, vacation plans - it could go on and on.  Personally, I like to make lists.  Someone once told me that if we are living without a list, we are living an unplanned life.  But I digress. . .

No one plans to end up in prison.  How do I know?  I work with a prison ministry.  Not one person that I counsel in prison has told me that this form of government housing was their life plan.  What has become their life plan is to get out and survive on the outside.  Our job is to help them survive.  Some have a better chance than others.  Occasionally someone tells me that they are so thankful that they ended up in prison (yes, I really do hear that) because they realize that God intervened in their life and interrupted their plans because He had a better one - that they needed to go to prison to be part of God's plan.  Those are the inmates that I believe have a strong chance of survival.  


We don't have to go to prison to be part of God's plan.  We don't have to be criminals to be living outside of God's plan.  We can fight God's plan on so many levels.  For me, I am only going to get tired doing that.  And I know, without a doubt, that God's promise that He spoke so long ago still is true:


I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.  Jeremiah 29:11


How are your plans going today?  Have you talked to God about them?