Ditching Plan B

It caught my eye on a shopping trip in 1999. A poster with a small pine tree surrounded by tall walls of rock. Below the scene was the word “DETERMINATION”. I sure did admire that little pine tree determined to grow in an impossible environment. I knew it was going to inspire me for years to come if I parked it on the door of my new office at my new job. For the last 17 years, that poster has greeted me each morning as I open my office door oftentimes giving me the gumption I needed to pull my big girl panties on and face the challenges of that day.

About two weeks ago, I hesitated as I opened my office door. Like a bell that went from a beautiful ringing sound to the less familiar but distinctive and unpleasant “clunk”, the image no longer boosted my resolve for the day. I thought nothing of it, until the next morning when it happened again. So, just like all strange problems that pop up like that, I took it to The Lord and asked Him what I should make of this sudden change of attitude regarding the pine tree surrounded by rock walls.

The answer was in the question. It is a pine tree surrounded by rock walls. I smiled to the heavens with a good little giggle, marched to that door, ripped up the poster and put it in the trash.

What in the world, Nancy, have you lost your mind?

Ok, hear me out for a minute. Let’s say you want to plant a tree. You have two choices in real estate to put it. The first is in hard ground surrounded by rock walls. The second is soft rich soil out in the light. Now I don’t have much of a green thumb, but even I know most trees need their roots to go deep into the soil and their tops require lots of sunlight. The pine tree in my poster didn’t have either of those things and so it was short, stubby, and in pretty rough shape. Hard ground and rock walls will do that to trees.

It will do that to people too.

More times than I care to admit, I have been that pine tree. Surviving a life of hard ground and rock walls. And if I am truly transparent about it, I will tell you that I have often built those rock walls myself. For the rest of you rock wall building experts, you get me here. The walls keep anymore hurt out of your life. So when people are hurtful, we pick up our tools and start building those rock walls higher and higher so that people can’t get in and hurt us anymore.

But that is not the type of life Our Creator God intends for us to live. He created us to live in soft rich soil out in the light. It grieves His heart when we put ourselves on hard ground surrounded by the rock walls we have built.

“Oh, but Nancy,” you might say to me, “God doesn’t understand the hurt I’ve endured. It’s better for me to be here within my walls where I am safe.”

Believe me, you guys, I totally get that about you. Because that was how I felt about it too. Even that very afternoon on the day I ripped that poster off my door, I was back to building those rock walls. Hurt so bad I cried for a day.

But I was not alone in my grief. Jesus who had been crucified by those He loved sat beside me. Helped me to see that living as a short, stubby pine tree on hard ground surrounded by rock walls is a horrible plan. And He’s a Plan A only kind of guy.

God’s Plan A for us is to grow our roots deep into rich soil and be bathed in the warmth of sunlight. TO THRIVE. Because Father God made us to thrive. He didn’t create us to dream up and execute some rotten Plan B that has us building rock walls on hard ground. EVER.

How can anyone thrive in a world of hurt? I admit, I don’t have all of the answers. But I do know that when I walk alongside others who are hurting, my desire to build walls around myself fades away. Because in those times, I am the hands and feet of Jesus. And He becomes all I need. No matter what kind of hurt I’ve got staring at me, He is my portion and that gives me hope (Lamentations 3:24). It’s a “Plan A” kind of living.

There will still be days when you want to build rock walls around yourself. The desire will become less and less the more you thrive under Plan A. But what do you do when you do feel like building rock walls? Make two calls. The first call is to Jesus. Shredding your Plan B is a tricky business of the heart, and you are going to need Jesus to take care of that. Your heart and your flesh will fail, but He is your strength (Psalm 73:26). The second call is to someone in your life that you know is a wall-builder too. Just telling that person you’re getting set to build your walls is one sure way to see to it that you don’t—because oftentimes those kinds of walls can only be built if nobody is paying attention.

We are clever rock wall builders, aren’t we?

But God who IS the ROCK (Psalm 18:2) sings over you (Zephaniah 3:17), Beloved. Calling you to a rich life in Him. Toss that Plan B out the door. You simply don’t need it.