Does God Really Laugh at our Plans?

There's an old Yiddish proverb, "We plan, God laughs" that expresses a degree of truth that when humans plan something to happen things turn out different than hoped. There is a quote with similar intent by Woody Allen, "if you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans."

Although this proverb is often true in that results turn out different than we anticipate, the aim of this article is to present a view that God actually wants us to achieve and merit our plans, so long as they are true and wholesome desires. I mention that the proverb expresses a degree of truth because I believe God helps us envision and create our plans and helps us achieve it, even with the unanticipated events that arise. Even if things turn out to be 180 degrees from what was intended, there is fortune and pleasure in having faith and trust that things turn out better than one can imagine.

It is common to have at one time or another use this proverb to prevent us from making plans in the first place because, "why make plans if God is just going to laugh?" Or, we create plans with the expectation that it's not going to happen, which reinforces the belief that it won't happen by attracting something to supports that belief. Why? Because the belief that God laughs at my plans is accepted without any question.

In a 2018 interview on Oprah's Super Soul Conversations, Jack Canfield shared an empowering belief worthy of adopting: "you're not given a dream unless you have the capacity to fulfill it." God wants you to plan, to define a vision for your future that is aligned with Him. Otherwise you wouldn't even have it. The difference is that we should not be confined by the vision and that we get to build faith and trust in the arrival of our plan or in something better. And something better may not be apparently better until a later time with a higher awareness.

How to get God to Laugh with you throughout your plans:

1. Create a Plan, a Vision

2. Define it in detail

3. Rehearse Mentally how it looks, what it feels like, what is going on, what activities you are doing in that plan or vision

4. Get clear on why you want this plan to happen: how would it benefit you, how would it benefit the world, and how important is it to you. Make sure it is something you really desire and is not something someone said you must go after.

5. When the what and why are clear, the how becomes clearer

6. Think positively about the plan or vision. Focus on what is going well rather than the gap between you and your vision.

7. If and when you feel separate from the plan or vision, exercise faith and trust in God and that whatever you are experiencing is part of the process, part of the achievement of the plan or vision. "Rather than thinking of your creation as something separate from you," Dr. Joe Dispenza has explained in in his books, "it is already part of you."

8. If things turn out completely different than hoped - as the world is experiencing with COVID-19 - trust in what is occurring or what has arisen and learn to adapt. A great short story that helps with this is Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson

Believe that you and your vision are connected. And that if things turn out different than you had hoped, choose to laugh with God.