Yesterday morning the fog was so thick I couldn’t see more than a few feet before me as I drove to get breakfast. If I was a stranger driving down the small street for the first time, I wouldn’t have known I was approaching a grocery store, two banks, and a busy intersection.

But I had to keep driving. I rolled down the windows so I could see my immediate surroundings a bit more clearly. The yards ahead were future me’s problem. The road directly in front of me demanded now’s focus.

In the fog I realized that the new year would be like this—the road ahead undetectable, even though we think we know where we’re going. It was a humbling reminder.

The Limits of New Years Resolutions

I’m a goals person. I don’t care that New Year’s resolutions have gone somewhat out of vogue. I still believe that setting goals for the new year is a good habit, especially if it’s something you enjoy…and if you know its limits.

The “limits” part is important. Because I can say I want to do this and accomplish that. I can create a vision board or craft a mission statement for my year. I can even make a game plan, write daily sub-goals, and recruit an accountability partner. But I can’t guarantee any success or even action. Because truly, I don’t know what lies 50 yards ahead. It’s still hidden by fog.

I keep setting goals anyway. Usually, it’s my own failure that keeps me from reaching them. Sometimes, however, it’s that unseen obstacle just a mile up the road.

Plan…Then Trust

This is the tension I feel when I read Proverbs. “Consider the ant, O sluggard,” the Scriptures say. No one tells them what to do, and they plan for winter anyway. But also, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

Confused at this apparent inconsistency, I used to hyper-focus on the ant. I needed everything planned out and organized—my education, my career, my life. The not-knowing what would happen used to drive me insane. I would verge on hyperventilating as a teen not knowing where I’d get accepted to attend college and whether I’d ever get married—heck, even whether I’d pass my drivers license test. (Spoiler alert, I did get my drivers license, even after backing into a pole during the parallel parking portion of the test. I also got a degree and a husband—and not exactly in the fashion I’d planned.)

The older I get, the more okay I am with the both/and nature of the Bible on this point. We use the wisdom God gave us to prepare for the future as best we can. But only God is omniscient. We have to accept that there are things ahead we can’t foresee or even expect.

So we trust.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20)