Why Plan if we have faith in God ?

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matt 6 : 26)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own…” (Matt 6 : 34)

People use Bible verses like these to explain why planning is not necessary. They think that God will pave the way if we have faith in Him. Worrying and planning are not signs of faith.

But thinking further, if birds do not make an effort to find food, they will die. How do we know that they do not plan? For us humans, God has given us a brain to think, and store knowledge and experiences. These valuable life assets are gifts from God; we would waste them if we do not make good use of them.

Another gift from God is free will. He does not want us to be robots waiting for his signal before making every movement. We can and should plan and make decisions.

Therefore, keep on sleeping just because we have not heard God’s wake-up call could be an excuse! Nor should we keep on playing computer games believing that with faith we can pass an examination without making due preparation.

Unfortunately some people do not want to bear any responsibility; they throw it to God and say, “God will guide”. After drinking, some drive and say, “God will lead”. After mixing lust with love, two persons get married and say, “God will provide”. ….I believe however, it is unlikely that God will guide an irresponsible person to take responsibility, nor a lazy person to become a lazier one.

The power of life story telling (2)

The four stages of life story telling, each of which will be explained in more detail in future postings, are:

• Stage 1 : 「起」(Progress to Date)

• Stage 2 : 「承」(Reasons for Change – the call)

• Stage 3 : 「轉」(Change Initiatives/paradigm shift)

• Stage 4 : 「合」(Future Action Plan)

As mentioned earlier, organisations can also use the story telling approach to implement participative management, as an enhancement to corporate planning.

Life story telling is powerful because it can link up /integrate:

• a person’s past, present (at Stages 1 & 2) with his future (at Stages 3 & 4)

• big, medium and small boundaries, of different dimensions e.g. geographic, networks, thoughts

• a person’s concurrent life paths [1] : private [2], career [3] and societal [4]

• a person’s relationships with God, people and himself

• top-down (from vision, mission, life goals) with bottom-up (self management, time management, short-term objectives) approaches

• rational thinking with feelings (mainly at Stage 2)

A story may be told the second time (and more times) by the same person so that he and the listeners can get more inspirations and learning. Because of individual differences, the same story may inspire different listeners differently. Supported by a suitable group culture, the Q & A process can be the most valuable part, contributing much to Stages 3 and 4.

In a story-based REST Group [5], each member’s future action plan (Stage 4) can also be steered and tracked through joint consultation.

Notes:

[1] A holistic view about life is : life > career > professions/trades > position/work/job

[2] Private life includes life in family, church and close personal networks

[3] A career path may consist of several professions and many positions and jobs

[4] A person’s societal life includes voluntary work, contributions to the society, etc; for an organization, her social responsibility actions

[5] R, E, S, T stand for renewal, empowerment, support network and transformation. Communications on running a story-based REST Group is welcome, with Dr Charles Lam (charles155@gmail.com)