Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way that leads to death.

Imagine with me that you’re reading a book. (This is going to be a bit of a challenge, but if you’ll bear with me I think it’s worth the effort.) But, you’re reading a long and getting to know the actors in the story. You know the main characters and how they act and think. Perhaps you’ve read the book before, so you know how it goes.

But, this time, when you’re reading it, something is different. The story line keeps changing from what you’re used to. You finally figure it out, the main actor keeps making changes to the story based on his view of where he is in the story. After all, it’s his story, so why shouldn’t he be allowed to make the decisions on where his life is going? So, instead of getting the story that you’re used to getting from reading the book, the storyline keeps shifting.

You know how the story should go, and you can see how the decisions the actor is making are going to totally change and even ruin the final outcome. You can see how this decision is going to change the ending. You can see how this decision is going to alter the main actor’s path so he won’t even be in position to have the more important option that’s coming in chapter 33.

And now imagine with me how the author of the book would feel if that were to happen? Can you imagine how Lewis Carroll would feel if Alice had just decided to stay in wonderland and didn’t want to go home? How would Louis Stevenson feel if Dr. Jekyll just decided to stay Dr. Jekyll from now on? How L. Frank Baum feel if Dorothy tried to join forces with the wicked witch to destroy the wizard?

It’s hard to conceive isn’t it? We don’t think about that happening because they are the actors and characters of the story. Their story has been written and they don’t even think about where they’re going. That’s not their job. That’s not their role. That’s the responsibility of the author.

And yet, we do that all the time. There is a plan for our lives, and yet we spend most of our lives trying to pursue our own dreams. There is a plan God has laid out for us to discover, but instead of trying to discover it, we go after the plan and dream society tells us we should pursue.

Yes, we have free will. No, there isn’t a word for word description about how we should play out our lives. But, there is more to all stories that what we see written down in the pages of any book. We don’t ever know everything about any actor in a story.

But there is a plan, and we do have a lot of how we should live and lead our lives written down. While God was forming us in our womb (Psalm 139) he had a plan for us (Jer. 29). And in today’s proverb we see that His plan is the only right plan, and His plan leads to life. Our plans lead to death.

We all have plans and dreams for our lives. But, when we make our plans and dreams apart from God’s guidance and direction, we will inevitably fail. Our own plans will always lead to a result that takes away from what God really wants to do.

Stop trying to be the author.