Saturday, March 3, 2012

Best Laid Plans


Every now and again, I am reminded of how terrible I am at making plans.  I put forth a lot of thought and effort into planning so things go just right, yet I still find myself wondering why things aren't going according to plan.  How has all my work gone awry?

Well, I find a lot of the time this happens because I don't include enough people in the process of making the plans.  When I get to the point where I lay out the plan, there usually ends up being a conflict I didn't foresee.  Even in the times when a lot of people are included, we each tend to work on our own part of the plan and not see how it fits with the other parts until later on in the process.  I'm not entirely sure why this happens.  Maybe pride or an attempt at expressing individuality?  Whatever it is, it can certainly be frustrating.

Obviously, we can't involve everyone in the process of every plan we make.  We can, however, involve a number of people who work collaboratively throughout a project instead of towards the middle or end.  To quote one of my favorite sources of nuggets of wisdom: "Without counsel, plans go wrong, but with many advisers, they succeed." -Proverbs 15:22

Not only is the planning process so much easier when I don't try to take all of the burden on myself, but I find that the plans tend to work out much better when they are made by more than just me.  I hope that I can keep this in mind as I continue to grow both as a person of faith and as a priest.  As much as I may like to think of myself as being capable of performing any task set before me, I think that, the more I mature, the more I realize how incapable I am of doing things on my own.  Asking for help and advice is not a sign of weakness or incompetence.  Instead, it is a sign of growth (previous and continued).  To assume that we do not need help is to assume that we are already perfect.  I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to make that claim.

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