I found myself backward planning in a non-school situation the other day, too! It was Saturday, and I had a few things to check off my list (some at home, some not) before company arrived at a certain time. When I woke up that morning, I got my mind organized and ready for the day ahead by working backward from the time when I knew everything needed to be done. If my company is arriving at 4 p.m., then I need to be back home in order to turn the crockpot on by 2, so I need to be heading home from my errands by 1:45, which means I need to be walking into the grocery store by 1:15, so I better get to my sister’s house for my nieces’ piano lessons by noon. And I definitely want to have an hour at the coffee shop for my Saturday morning quiet time before that, so I should be arriving there by 10:45, which means I should be leaving home by 10:30 a.m. Perfect, I’ve got a plan.

Whew. Is my brain the only one that works that way?! Ha! The backward planning works for me every time. If my mind is more of a big, jumbled mess, breaking things down and working backward from where I want to ultimately end up gives me clear direction. Just embarking on something—whether it be a day of errands or a journalism unit—without any focused sense of direction might work for a while, but ultimately I’d argue it’s not the best plan when it comes to efficiency. 

What kind of “ultimate” vision do you have of your relationship with Jesus? Do you wish you were more intimately connected to Him than you are? Does your “ideal” connection to the Lord seem out of reach and too difficult to attain? In our social media saturated world, comparison is lurking around every corner. Even in our faith lives, it’s so easy and tempting to look at other people and compare ourselves to them. Maybe there’s a lady at your church who’s involved in everything and seems to have the servant heart you wish you had. Or what about that gal in your Bible study who knows so much more about the Bible than you? Perhaps you’ve compared your prayer life to another person’s who is always diligently following up on prayer requests from other people, suggesting that she is an incredible prayer warrior. 

Rather than comparing yourself to other people, what if you thought intentionally about what you’d really like your relationship with Jesus to be like? You could even jot down notes. And then, do some backward planning! What steps could you take in order to get to that ideal place you’d like to be? If you say you want a vibrant prayer life, but you just kinda think about that and never really take steps toward it, your vibrant prayer life will probably not materialize! Unless you’re lucky. 🙂

Obviously planning your way into a close relationship with Jesus is something that must be paired together with the work and power of the Holy Spirit. Human striving and efforts alone are futile. But on the flip side, intimacy with God doesn’t just fall into a person’s lap. I’ve heard it said that you can’t drift into holiness, and I think the same holds true when it comes to relationships. You can’t just accidentally have a close relationship with anybody; it takes intentionality, planning and effort. The same is true for a relationship with God. 

So let’s play out one possible (big picture) scenario. If I want to have a vibrant, intimate relationship with Jesus, then I need to get to know Him better. That means I must spend time in His Word regularly, becoming more familiar with His commands, wisdom, character, etc. So in order to do that, I better purposefully set aside time to read my Bible every day. I know my days get crazy once they’re underway, so my best option will be getting up 30 minutes earlier in the mornings so I can have a quiet, focused amount of time in the Word before my day starts. 

That’s just one fairly vague example. What part of your life as a disciple of Jesus do you yearn to change? improve? learn more about? Get really specific if you want to! Do you wish you had a set fasting routine? Do you wish you knew more about the Bible? Do you wish you were more consistent with remembering God’s faithfulness in answering our prayer requests? Do you wish you had more Scripture verses hidden away in your heart/head? Do you wish you were more aware of God’s presence throughout your daily ups and downs?

Stop wishing, and start backward planning. KNOW where you want to be, and then PLAN (step by step!) exactly what you need to do to get to that point. And through it all, invite the Holy Spirit into your process. Simply wishing won’t make anything happen. Runners don’t make it across the finish line by just thinking about how they wish they’d be finishing. They backward plan. They think carefully through everything they need to do in order to triumphantly cross the finish line, and then they do it. It’s time for you to stop just thinking about what you wish your relationship with Jesus was like. It’s time to work with the Holy Spirit and do the things you need to do in order to get to that point. Be earnest in your pursuit of intimacy with the Almighty. Take action!

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched and where there is no water. -Psalm 63:1