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It seems to me that this is another one of those areas where careful attention to balance is needed. Perhaps it is my own bias toward structure and planning (I hate "interruptions" and have to ask the Lord regularly for grace in this area) but this chapter seems to be written with a slant in favor of spontaneity. That's how I read it. Or perhaps Tim Laniak has observed that more of us in today's culture are naturally inclined toward structure and planning, like I am. So we need to be shifted toward adaptability.

But intentionality is important here. Shepherds can be so responsive to the urgent that they are inattentive to strategic planning - long-term or short-term. We can be so available to immediate needs that we get nothing done that requires foresight. We have all experienced days and times when the urgent was truly urgent and required total adaptability and availability to the Lord and to others regardless of our own plans. But my own experience is that those times are rare. Far more common is the tendency to be lazy about personal and corporate organization, goal-setting, and attention to specific action steps that follow a plan. Responding to every interruption and distraction is not wise shepherding.

Am I being too theologically anthropomorphic to say that in the Godhead the Father plans and orders and the Spirit blows the winds requiring adaptability? If I want to be like God, I want to be intentional about planning but available to let his plans overrule mine.

Bob,
I'd love your reflection to be included in everyone's reading of the book. In the next printing I'm changing the title to "Adaptability and Decision Making." It really is meant to be about pressing objectives through the chaos of the unexpected and uncontrollable. Thanks for bringing balance.