You Can Quote Me on This

‘The best laid plans of mice, men and Lynn’…..this is a quote, my quote which I have uttered more times than I care to think about. The first part of the quote (up to my name) is a partial line from a Scottish poem by Robert Burns written in the last half of the 1700s. It comes from a poem he wrote to a mouse after an unfortunate turn of the plow blade unearthed its nest just as the harsh winter weather was approaching; leaving the mouse without a home or the food stash it had accumulated.

In this sad poem Burns feels empathy for the plight of the mouse acknowledging it’s planning and preparations now left in ruin in spite knowing the mouse availed food from his fields. I can’t say I’m that generous if I discover a mouse in my house!

‘I doubt not, sometimes, but you may steal;
What then? Poor beast, you must live!
An odd ear in twenty-four sheaves
Is a small request;
I will get a blessing with what is left,
And never miss it.’

In life we all make plans of some sort. I’m a self-confessed planner. I make plans as a compass to guide me and keep me true to the course of direction I choose to go. If you’ve ever deviated a little bit off course in the beginning of a trip, you know the final destination can often be a surprise and nowhere near where you intended to end up when you started out. A plan can be a very good thing.

God often laughs at my plans. This has taught me to not take either my plans or myself so seriously. In scripture we are told God has a plan for our lives, so I can see where He might be amused by our pitiful little attempts to make our own. Like the mouse in the poem, we cannot foresee when an event or change in circumstance may plow through our plans; turning our worlds upside down and in pieces blowing in the wind. God’s Master Plan for our lives makes provisions for all we can neither see nor anticipate.

But Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leaves us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

All our planning and aligning of events can be quickly extinguished like the dancing flame of the candle in the window sill. This makes submitting to God’s plan for us the wiser choice. We can rest in confidence in His plan for our lives, believing He is in control at the helm in times of stormy weather; we can sleep peacefully as Jesus did in the back of the boat while those men around Him trembled in fear. With Jesus as our compass, our one True North, we are not left flapping in the breeze of our own plans flying out the window; we are held steady on course.

This is why I can say with a chuckle, “The best laid plans of mice, men and Lynn….”