Planning vs. Doing

True confession: I am a planner. To a fault. I plan for all kinds of scenarios. When faced with almost any situation, I picture in my head how it might play out and I plan for how I will respond/react to that outcome. Then I pick another potential outcome and do it all over again.

I plan how certian conversations will go, especially if there is the potential for conflict, and I plan what I will say and how I will say it.

I plan my days, my weeks and my months, knowing full well that life almost always intervenes and throws my planning out the window, but I am compelled to do it again and again.

If anyone ever saw the crazy tangled mess of planning and re-planning and trying to anticipate life and how I will react to it that goes on inside my head on an almost constant basis, I would undoubtedly be quickly committed to the nearest psych ward for evaluation - probably donned in a white "hug-me" jacket that ties in the back just for good measure. I'm not a danger to others,  but to myself - now that's open for debate.

I spend so much time planning and trying to control my little corner of the world that I sometimes neglect to do the doing.

I stumbled across a verse in Psalms this evening, quite the way one stumbles across a boulder in the middle of the sidewalk. Right there, nice and unobtrusively obvious in its placement on the page where my fingers turned and my eyes fell was this little gem:

"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;"

Wait for it ... wait for it ...

"On that very day their plans come to nothing."   ~ Psalm 146:3-4

Ouch. That hurt. I don't want my plans to come to nothing. If I spend my life planning and not doing, then my life will also come to nothing. Not that planning in itself is a bad thing. It is a necessary part of life. But like anything else, it must be kept in balance and in proper perspective. It is in the doing that we live out what we are designed to do. It is in the being that we discover who we are destined to be.

I want to be close to Him; found faithful; called a friend of God; known by Him; sheltered under the shadow of His wing; someone in whom the love of Jesus is seen and the heartbeat of God is heard.

I want to do the will of my Father who sent me; the work of His hands; that which pleases Him and brings a smile to His face; that which honors His name and causes others to look to Him.

I want to plan my days, my weeks and my months, knowing full well that life almost always intervenes and throws my planning out the window; and that when it does, it is not because I have planned poorly, but rather because I have learned well to listen to the voice of the One who loves me most and am willing to let my plans go as I embrace His.

As I trust in Him with all my heart, leaning not on my own understanding, He will make my paths straight.

Now that's something I can plan on.

It Could Happen to Anyone

Today I'm taking a break from my usual subject matter to share with you an article published this week in the Town Messenger in Hutto, Texas.

Penned by Yours Truly, it is a true account of a recent experience I had involving my car, a camera, and a $75 ticket.

Enjoy. But not too much. :)

It Could Happen to Anyone - 

The Good News & Bad News of Getting Busted on Camera

by: Rachael Wilkins

It finally happened. I had heard of it happening to other people, but like so many other things we hear about, you don’t really believe it until it happens to you. And it happened to me. I always thought that if it did happen to me, it would happen in some big metro area, not in a little community like Hutto, TX. But here is where it did happen.
 

They say Hutto is a small town with big ideas, and that is precisely what popped into my head and out of my mouth when it happened.
 

“Hey! What’s the big idea?”
 

There I was, minding my own business, sorting through the mail - bill, bill, advertisement - when there it was. A letter from the City of Hutto addressed to yours truly.  “Hmmm, I wonder what they want?”
 

I slid my trusty letter opener along the top of the innocent-looking envelope, creating a nice, clean opening through which I pulled out the contents. I opened the “letter,” and there they were, staring me in the face – two full-color snapshots of my rear end. Okay, so it was my car’s rear-end, but now that I have your attention, let’s continue.
 

Now before you start thinking that I was flying down Highway 79 like a bat out of you-know-where, allow me to explain that when I committed the offense that got me busted on camera, I was making a right turn on a red light at Exchange Blvd, an act that, so far as I know, is perfectly legal. Apparently, however, I did not come to a complete stop before doing so. That, come to find out, is not so legal. 

For those of you who have found yourself in this same situation, I know you feel my pain. Thank you. For those of you who have not yet experienced that surreal moment when you see a full-color photo of your vehicle committing a no-no, accompanied by all the sordid details, don’t laugh. It could happen to you, too. And if it does, I have good news and bad news for you. Bad news first.

The bad news is that fighting a photo ticket is next to pointless for obvious reasons, and your little moment of carelessness (aka committing a ticketable offense) will cost you $75.00. 

The good news is that photo tickets do not count as moving violations, so they should not appear on your driving record or affect your insurance rates (or so says my attorney). 

The other “good” news is that if you do find yourself the recipient of a traffic ticket in Hutto (the photo variety or the old-fashioned kind), you can easily pay your fine online at the city’s website, HuttoTX.gov, from the comfort of your own home. I love technology.

But seriously, this little adventure has served me well as a reminder to pay closer attention when I am driving. It’s easy to get distracted and coast through a stop sign or fail to come to a complete stop when appropriate. I’m grateful for the fine job our Hutto Police Department does in keeping ours a safe community. But in the future, I will be more careful and keep that $75.00 in my pocket – at least until the next big shoe sale.