The Intentional Series #4

I never plan. Or I could say I stopped planning after the greatest plans I ever made some years ago fell apart like dominoes.

The list looked something like this:

1. Graduate with Second Class Upper in Petroleum Engineering
2. Fall in love and get into my first ever relationship
3. Return home for a year of National Service (NYSC, as we call it)
4. Get accepted into an Oil and Gas company to complete my National Service
5. Apply for a Master’s Degree at IPS and spend the next year completing it
6. Return to the Country and the man I loved
7. Get involved at Church and maybe enrol in Bible School
8. Take it from there . . .

The first three all lined up like ducks in a row. Three is my favourite number of all time, I think that was why I got that far. The rest of them, well, like I said above: I never got accepted into an Oil and Gas company, instead, I completed my National Service in a bank (those who know what it means to work as an intern in a bank in Nigeria will understand why this wasn’t something to be happy about). I never passed the entrance examination for IPS after writing it twice (and it is written once every year), so I never got to enrol for the Master’s degree. The relationship I was in didn’t last the year, so out the window went my plans to return to the country and the man. And every other thing spiraled down from there. That was when I decided that planning wasn’t for me. I’ll just accept life as it comes.

But I was so wrong, and here’s why:

If I hadn’t made all those plans that fell apart, I never would have been on the journey to where I am today.

All the places I went and the things I did to see those plans come to fruition all led me to someone or something that has now remained a part of my life, or someone or something that pointed me in the right direction to where God actually wanted me to be.

Nothing will happen if you don’t make plans and make a move. God never told Abraham where he was going, but Abraham got up and made the move, and in his movement, God steered him in the right direction.

In the previous Intentional post, we talked about how Jesus intentionally utilized his time. I believe Jesus is the greatest planner ever, and that was how he made the best use of his time, or how else would we explain his title as ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world‘? It was all planned from the beginning.

So seize the moment. Make those plans as you trust God to lead you. Some might succeed and others might fail, but in the end, you’re on a journey that’s not over till the grave.

Be intentional!

. . . and yes, I’m learning to plan again.

#The Intentional Series