When Life Laughs at Your To-Do List
Today I read Proverbs 19 through 21, and one verse in particular (Proverbs 19:21, NLT) keeps echoing in my head:
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
The language is poetic, but the idea behind it feels deeply practical: people make all kinds of plans, but life often has its own agenda.
This resonates with me not just as an abstract idea, but as a real part of how things play out. I can think of so many moments when I had a clear vision for how something was supposed to go—a move, a job, a relationship, a creative project—and it just didn’t go that way. Sometimes it fell apart. Sometimes it took a hard left turn. Occasionally it worked out, but not in the way I expected.
Whose Script Are We Following, Anyway?
So what do we do with that? The proverb points toward something bigger than our own plans—something outside us that has more staying power. It uses the word "Lord," which in its original context likely referred to the Israelite conception of God. Reading this without a religious framework, I still find myself curious about what it might mean for something beyond me to "prevail" over my intentions. Is that time? Circumstance? Consequence? Luck?
There’s a quiet tension in this verse that I like. It acknowledges that planning is a natural part of being human—"many are the plans" suggests a sort of daily, even compulsive, tendency. But it also suggests that there's a limit to what we can control. There's something humbling about that.
Permission to Pivot
And maybe even a little freeing. If not every plan has to succeed in order for life to move forward, maybe there's less pressure to get it all right the first time. Maybe there's room for detours, mistakes, revisions.
It’s also worth asking: when a plan doesn’t pan out, does that automatically mean a "greater purpose" has taken over? Or are we just making meaning from randomness? I don’t have an answer to that. But I think both possibilities are worth sitting with.
This proverb doesn't seem to shame us for planning. It just adds a layer. A reminder that, while planning is part of the process, outcomes are not always in our hands. Something else—whether you call it chance, structure, fate, or purpose—might have the final word.