The Illusion of Control

As a dutiful, goal-oriented American, I took some time this past week to assess how well I’d met the goals I set last New Year. The results were not good.

As I recall, I had put quite a bit of time into all the success steps recommended by experts. I had assessed my current situation. I had reimagined my mission. I had summarized a lofty vision of my future. I had carefully looked at each of my life roles. I had written out specific, measurable goals related to every aspect of my personal life. And I had (at least for the first couple months) revisited my goals weekly, putting specific actions on my calendar.

I was pretty pleased with my progress by mid February. I had done some of this kind of personal planning before, but I’d have to say I outdid myself for 2020. The contents of my planning notebook were a masterpiece of self-management. Surely I was destined to achieve great things. After all, according to the vast majority of self-help pundits, the key step toward success is to develop a plan and write it down in specifics.

It’s pretty hard not to make fun of my beginning-of-2020-self in retrospect. A microscopic particle, COVID 19, upended all my well-laid plans. By mid-March I had entirely given up even looking at my goals. Nothing was going right. I had no hope of achieving even one of the key metrics I had set.

But I guess I wasn’t really surprised. I have been setting goals throughout my professional life. I do believe it is a good exercise. It forces me to operationalize dreams, to balance values, to prioritize time, and to map out concrete steps. It forms a platform for budgeting both money and effort. It prevents aimless wandering. But its premise is often inherently flawed.

I have to say, over thirty years or more, I have rarely seen final results that closely resemble initial vision. The random interventions of life radically impact outcomes. In the final analysis, I really don’t control much of what happens in my life. Indeed, I often feel like Alice (of Wonderland fame) playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos. Nothing happens as it is planned and frankly it doesn’t seem like the game is quite fair.

This does not mean goal setting is a waste. But it does mean that expecting the year to unfold according to plan is foolish. It’s likely better to imagine writing out the year’s plan on a wave swept beach at low tide. While such a plan may be valuable, you don’t expect it to endure against the forces of the sea.

Scripture does not speak against planning. Indeed, Jesus actually tells would-be followers to try to anticipate the cost of discipleship before embarking on the pilgrimage. In Luke 14 he suggests it is normal to plan ahead when building a tower or going to war. Goals and achievable strategies are just part of every effective endeavor.

But there is also strong recognition in the Bible that plans don’t always work out as intended. The randomness of events combine with the erratic nature of human will to make the future exceedingly difficult to predict, let alone shape.

So what is it we should resolve this New Year? In addition to all your neat and measurable goals (which may well be washed away by next month), I suggest two things.

1. Resolve to live (abide) in utter faith in and dependence on the One who holds the future and is able to carry you safely through the inevitable course corrections of 2021.
2. Resolve to take joy in the journey. Pay attention as you adjust your goals or make new plans to the way in which God is doing something much better than you could ever come up with.

This morning in our Sunday worship, the pastor reminded us of John 15. During that last discourse with His disciples, Jesus took great pains to let them know they would be very foolish to try to achieve great things on their own. Instead, He told them they were totally helpless by themselves. He suggested that if they wanted to live productive lives, there was just one resolution they needed. “ABIDE in ME!”

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:1-5 (ESV)