Are You Overplanning Your Life Away? Here’s How to Reclaim It!

This devotional is related to my post 7 Top Metal Garden Trellis Ideas.

At the beginning of this year, I went a little too overboard with planning and setting goals.  I ordered an expensive planner and even watched the goal-setting videos that came with it.  Before I knew it, I had every little aspect of my life planned and listed in bullet-point form.

When I took a closer look at what appeals to me so much about planning and listmaking, I realized that an overabundance of lists gives me a false illusion of control – that if I complete all my tasks, my life will be as it should…or at least “good enough”.   

But when you make a list of “rules” for you to fulfill, your list becomes your taskmaster and you are its slave.

Have you ever been on a diet where you were told not to eat a specific food?  I don’t know about you, but the best way to make me crave chocolate chip cookies is to absolutely forbid me from eating chocolate chip cookies.

We have an innate need to follow rules as our guide.  Our human nature craves legalism, rule-following, and answering to our taskmaster by checking off bullet points.  There is something about a list of rules that makes us feel like if we do enough, we will be enough.

But there’s a problem with this philosophy:  We can never do enough to be enough.

The Israelites of the Old Testament showed us that the relentless taskmaster of the Law made life rigorous, defeating, and unfulfilling.

God gave us the law to show us firsthand that even on our best day we can’t abide by all the rules perfectly and therefore we don’t measure up on our own. (Romans 8:3,4)

But God already says you are enough.  You don’t have to strive to do good things because God fully loves you and accepts you as you are through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  

You are worthy because you are His.

No longer are we motivated by fear to work FOR fulfillment and acceptance.

Now, we can be motivated by love to work FROM fulfillment and acceptance.

When we realize we no longer need to find acceptance through good works, we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we already have God’s stamp of approval because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

No longer do we have to perform certain tasks or check out accomplishments for our day to “count.”

But we can do our work as a result of the delight we have in knowing we already have full acceptance from Him.

 Instead of making endless lists, I have a simple list of three imperatives – tasks that HAVE to be done that are aligned with my God-given goals. 

From there, I look at those items, knowing that they are like a trellis that guides my day. I don’t have to follow them exactly, and I can readjust when life happens. Instead of a rigid plan, they are a form of support to help me through my day just like a vine uses a trellis as a support.

Adopting this philosophy has changed the way I look at each day’s tasks – even in the most mundane to-do items. 

I feed my dogs not because my taskmaster’s to-do list said I had to.  I do it because I love them and want to care for them the way God cares and provides for me.  This mindset shift changed how I viewed my life – not as rules to be fulfilled but as blessings to be savored.

Like searching for a pair of sunglasses already on your head, seeking fulfillment and security in works is frustrating, because we are consumed with searching for something we already fully possess.

When we understand who were are as fully accepted children of God, we can stop trying to earn the love that we already have in abundance through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2