To the Planners: an Invitation to be Calm, Quiet, and Weaned

I like to think of myself as a planner. I am not an extreme planner and do not have every second of my day or every year of my life thought through, but I always aim to have a plan because it gives me assurance of what is going on and that I can fix things if something goes wrong. For a long time, I thought about this as a gift from God because I could not understand how people could live for the moment or not think much about the next step. I was mistaken. Do not get me wrong, I still think it is a gift from God to be spontaneous. I am in a season of life that requires me to plan ahead but to do so with very little certainty of what is to come and with, according to me, not the best means to ensure that my plans come to fruition. It is such a tough season to be in, but God, in his kindness, has given me and you, if you are also a planner, the gift of his Word that contains many passages that call us to trust and hope in God. I came across Psalm 131 recently and I believe the imagery in this short Psalm will help you and I to be God’s weaned children. I have divided the Psalm into 3 parts: 

Part one: Pride and ‘Bigness’ (v1)

When I first read this verse, I thought of how much I fall short of what the psalmist is expressing here. But not the part that speaks about pride and haughtiness, the second part that speaks of getting involved with things that are too great and wondrous for the psalmist. The tone of this verse made me think for a bit of what could possibly be too big and wondrous for me to get involved in and how that has anything to do with pride. This is obviously not something the psalmist and God are encouraging, so this must be a serious thing. God helped me see a couple of things in my life that are too wondrous and big for me, but that I get involved in anyways - the future and provision, to name a couple. 

The second thing God helped me see is that because he is the one who knows what tomorrow holds, he knows my next thought before I even conceive it, he works everything according to the purpose of his will (which is always good), and because he is loving and able and has promised to provide me with what I need, it is definitely proud and haughty of me to get involved with the things that he has ultimate power and control over. There it was, right in my face, a link I did not initially make that I am but human and God is God and it is therefore proud of me to be involved in what only he has control over. 

What wondrous and big things do you get involved in? Ask God to help you see these things so that you can repent of your pride and haughtiness. 

So if we are not going to be involved in things that are too wondrous for us, what are we to do? 

Part two: Quietness, Calmness, and Being Weaned (v2)

What is evident in our involvement in things that are too wondrous for us is that it is a clear indication that we are trusting ourselves and not God, or that we are not trusting God completely. We look at our ability to plan and our blurred ideas of what we think the future holds as what will guarantee that things will work out. We look within ourselves, our organizational skills, calendars, diaries, and to-do lists and say to ourselves “ah, I have this all planned out, and because I have it all planned out, it will work out”. However, the psalmist starts the verse with the word ‘instead’ which links verse 1 to what he says now. He is saying that instead of pride and haughtiness and involvement in things too big for him, he has calmed and quieted his soul like a weaned child with its mother, his soul is like a weaned child. What does this even mean? A weaned child is content, satisfied, and trusting of his parent and as a result, the child is quiet and calm. 

The psalmist has given up power and control, and has instead become humble, content, satisfied, and trusting - like a weaned child with its mother and he calls us today to do the same. 

Part three : A Call to Hope (v3) 

The psalmist ends by showing us how our souls can be like that of a weaned child by calling us to put our hope in the Lord, both now and forever. This is a simple thing to understand, but it is a hard thing to do because our sinful hearts always point to our abilities and strengths (which are basically nothing in light of who God is) and assure us that we can do it without God or that we can let him play a small role in our lives while we take the lead. 

This is why I think my planning instincts and my constant desire to have things thought through are gifts from God because in this season that requires me to plan, God has showed me how little I trust in him and how much I trust in myself and in my ability to think five steps ahead. God wants to keep you and I humble and trusting in him because it is what is best for us, and in my case, maybe it in yours as well, he has used this character trait to point out just how much I fall short of this and how much I need him. 

Now with his help, although it is a constant struggle, whenever I plan or think ahead, I am reminded to trust him and him alone. An excel sheet and my plans A to Z will not guarantee that things will happen at all, or in a certain order, or that I will be provided for, the only thing that guarantees if things will happen and if I will have what I need is God’s control over this massive universe and his immense love for me.

With God’s help, I am constantly walking towards having a soul like a weaned child and I hope that you will ask God to help you do the same.