All who are obsessed with being secure in life will lose it all – including their lives. But those who let go of their lives and surrender them to me will discover true life. Luke 17:33 (TPT)
Most of us are living agenda-driven lives. We build plans, manage schedules, set goals, and measure our days by what we accomplish. Structure can certainly help us stay focused, but somewhere along the way, we started believing that a full calendar is the same thing as a meaningful life. The problem is, the more driven we become by our own plans, the easier it is to miss what God is doing right in front of us.
Jesus was certainly busy, and yet, with all that pressure, He was never in a hurry, never on the clock, and certainly not driven by a daily agenda. There is no evidence that any one of the disciples was in charge of setting up the day’s appointments, creating a plan and mapping the course, or even providing Jesus with His top three most important engagements.
Reading about a day in the life of Jesus, we find Him more of a wanderer, someone meandering through the streets of town, heading for the synagogue to teach the people and provoke the Pharisees. I actually think He enjoyed watching them get worked up about people getting healed. But, I digress.
The most impactful moments of Jesus’ life and ministry were often unplanned. The ones that didn’t fit the pattern of perfect kingdom living or purposeful, agenda-driven accomplishment. No, they were experienced as He traveled. Often, on His way to solve a problem or comfort a grieving family.
We would agree that Jesus was certainly effective in the three years He spent ministering on planet earth. Yet, it is evident that He was never driven by the “to-dos” that were screaming for His attention all around or by a rigid schedule that mandated passing by some while on the way to others.
Jesus beautifully demonstrated the unforced rhythms of grace. He showed us that a life surrendered to the Father is not a life of chaos or passivity—it is a life of awareness. A life that notices interruptions, embraces moments, and responds to what God is doing right now.
The question isn’t whether we will live with an agenda—we all do. The real question is whose agenda are we following? Our own carefully constructed plans may give us a sense of control, but they can never produce the life we were created to live.
The truth is, fulfillment is not found in perfectly managing our lives. It is found in surrendering them. When we release our grip on our own plans and begin to follow the agenda of heaven, we discover something surprising: the life we were trying so hard to build is the very life God was waiting to lead us into all along.