Mike Tyson once said of his upcoming bout with Evander Holyfield, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
I’m not a boxer, but in principle I’d have to agree. Some of my best strategies for life or ministry worked beautifully on paper. Then with the first setback, it all went weak in the knees.
I suppose that’s the way it works for most of us. The initial taste of pain, or disappointment, makes you wonder if the time and effort is worth it.
Except for God. There’s no second guessing with Him.
His plan, as I laid out in chapter one of this new book, is beautiful. (If you haven’t read the chapter yet, click the book cover and take a look.)
But in this upcoming chapter, soon to be released, God anticipates an inevitable punch in the face, and the moment when everything goes haywire. His purpose doesn’t depend upon plans going right, dodging setbacks, avoiding pain. Instead, He factors these moments in, and redeems them, converting them into an even stronger long game.
That will be Chapter 2, where things transition from beauty to grit. Chapter two will be a foil to chapter one, because nobody can make a bigger mess than the people of God.
And when we get together and do dumb things, the scale of destruction is off the chart.
