What is required of us?

I like to plan. I never really thought of myself as that much of a planner, and I never really wrote it all out and put it in concrete terms, but I really like to have a plan. This has become more evident in my life these past few years as less and less things have been certain about the future. I continue to plan out the way I think everything will unfold (the way I would like it to unfold...), to imagine it and count down the days until whatever plan comes to pass.

This is changing, slowly.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21)

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with planning. I think we're called to be wise and to number our days. But when plans become an idol, something to cling to and repeat to ourselves when things seem uncertain, we've gone too far.

I couldn't really tell you what my life will look like more than about 4 months out at this point. I could guess, but that's where I fall back into planning again. But as the Lord gently pries my plans out of my fingertips, He does not leave me empty-handed:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what it will look like. I do know that I am to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with my God, and that is enough.