The best-laid plans
“It is our actions that are important. We leave the results to our Higher Power.”
Basic Text p. 88
There’s an old saying we sometimes hear in our meetings: “If you want to make God
laugh, make plans”. When we hear this we usually laugh, too, but there’s a nervous
edge to our laughter. We wonder if all of our carefully laid plans are doomed to fail.
If we’re planning a big event-a wedding, a return to school, or perhaps a career
change-we begin to wonder if our plans are the same as our Higher Power’s plans.
We are capable of working ourselves into such a frenzy of worry over this question
that we refuse to make any plans at all.
But the simple fact is that we really don’t know whether our Higher Power’s plans for
our lives are carved in stone or not. Most of us have opinions about fate and destiny
but, whether we believe in such theories or not, we still have a responsibility to live
our lives and make plans for the future. If we refuse to accept responsibility for our
lives, we’re still making plans-plans for a shallow, boring existence.
What we make in recovery are plans, not results. We’ll never know whether the
marriage, the education, or the new job is going to work out until we try it. We
simply exercise our best judgment, check with our sponsor, pray, use all the
information at hand, and make the most reasonable plans we can. For the rest, we
trust in the loving care of the God of our understanding, knowing that we’ve acted
responsibly.
Just for today: I will make plans, but I will not plan the result. I will trust in my
Higher Power’s loving care.