Do you want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.
"Man makes plans, and God laughs." - an old yeddish proverb.
We like to believe we are in control. We map out our futures, set goals, and imagine how life should unfold. Yet, life has a way of disregarding even our best-laid plans. Unexpected detours, disappointments, and surprises often reshape our journey in ways we never anticipated.
It’s easy to grow frustrated when things don’t go as planned. But what if we saw life’s unpredictability not as an obstacle but as an invitation?
If God laughs at our plans, maybe the answer isn’t to stop planning but to embrace the humour in life’s unpredictability, give more reasons for laughter, lean into the absurdity of it all, and find joy in what we cannot control.
Plans are helpful, but life is unpredictable. The more we accept uncertainty, the less we suffer.
Planning is, in many ways, an attempt to impose order on the uncontrollable. We set career paths, financial goals, and personal timelines, believing that if we plan carefully enough, we can shape our destinies. Well, life doesn’t operate on our schedule.
You plan for stability, and the company downsizes.
You plan for love, and the relationship ends.
You plan a quiet life, and chaos arrives uninvited.
This isn’t to say planning is futile.
It’s practical and essential, but only when we accept that the outcome is never guaranteed.
The Stoics understood this well. They advised preparing for the future but detaching from the results.
As Epictetus said, “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
Some of life’s best moments arise not from perfect execution but from deviation—a wrong turn that leads to an unforgettable adventure, a failure that sparks a new path.
A rejection that opens the door to something greater.
A few examples on my mind are of J.K. Rowling, who planned to be a teacher but found herself broke, divorced, and writing in cafés while raising a child alone. Or Steve Jobs, whose firing from Apple, something that seemed disastrous at the time, eventually led him back to create some of the most revolutionary products of our time.
Neither planned for the obstacles that shaped them, but their successes wouldn’t have been possible without those detours.
When things don’t go as expected, we have a choice: we can resist and suffer or adapt and find meaning in the unpredictability.
Perhaps the wisest response to life’s uncertainty is not frustration but playfulness.
If God laughs at our plans, maybe we should laugh too. Not in resignation but in recognition that life is, at its core, an unfolding mystery, one that no amount of planning can fully grasp.
This doesn’t mean we stop trying. It means we loosen our grip, remain open to the unknown, and see setbacks as part of the larger story. A story that is often funnier, wilder, and more prosperous than anything we could have scripted ourselves.
We plan because we are human, adjust because life is unpredictable, and perhaps laugh because wisdom teaches us that both are necessary.
If God is laughing, let’s not be the ones sulking in the corner. Let’s laugh along, make our plans anyway, and welcome whatever comes next, not with resistance but with curiosity, courage, and just a little mischief.
