Did you ever find yourself looking back at your week and saying, “Oh, yeah, I was going to do that,” or “It just skipped my mind.” Another week passes and we say the same thing again. It’s that way with our spiritual life as well. To coin an old expression, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.
In this week’s Gospel, we hear Jesus discussing His impending death with Philip and Andrew, and he admits that He is troubled. Yet that was why He came to this point in His ministry—to die so that we might live. Death, as unfortunate as it is, is often a wakeup call for us. We realize our mortality and we decide something needs to change. Interestingly, some people start organizing their closets, get their wills up to date, heal broken relationships, etc.
This week our message is to create a plan for life. What do we want to do differently? What have we looked back upon with regret? How is our relationship with God? We never know the length of time for the “rest of our life.” It may be 1 more minute, a day, a month or years. The wise person will choose to plan the rest of their life sooner rather than later—rather than too late. Let us spend this 5th week of Lent beginning to plan our journey ahead, not looking back with regret, but looking forward to the rest of eternity with God.