Singles

Life Lessons
Plan as if Your Life Depended on It
This material appears courtesy of Nappaland

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

It was 1864, and for nine long months General Ulysses S. Grant and his Union soldiers had been in a standoff with General Robert E. Lee’s southern Confederate army outside Lee’s stronghold of Richmond, Virginia. It was then a group of Pennsylvania coal miners in Grant’s army requested permission to present a daring plan.

Why not, they reasoned, dig an underground tunnel all the way into the Confederate camp, fill it with gunpowder and blast their way into a surprise attack deep in enemy territory?

After some discussion, General Grant approved the plan, and the miners enthusiastically set to work. Finally the tunnel was ready. Union soldiers gathered at its entrance prepared to commence the surprise underground attack. The fuse was lit, and moments later a volcano-like explosion rocked the unsuspecting Confederate forces, sending horses, soldiers, tents and more flying into fiery oblivion.

It had worked! The explosion had created a crater 150 feet wide and 30 feet deep, large enough for the massive invading force to flow through! Thousands of Union soldiers streamed down the tunnel and appeared on the other side, smack in the middle of the Confederate chaos.

But in all the planning for this daring attack, one important detail had been forgotten: Ladders. The crater’s dirt walls prevented the invaders from advancing on to victory and the press of men behind prevented a retreat to safety. They were trapped! Before long, the Confederates had regrouped and began shooting the helpless Union soldiers like fish in a barrel.

In all, 3,800 Union men were killed or wounded that day, making it a terrible, bloody defeat for Grant’s army. The northern General later called it the “saddest affair I have witnessed in the war.”

Just as the Union soldiers needed ladders to reach their goals, we all need God to lift us to the heights of which we dream. We would do well to include Him in our plans for the future.

After all, our lives depend on it.

"Life Lessons from America’s Civil War: Lesson #1" excerpted from Life Lessons from America’s Civil War © 1999 Nappaland Communications Inc. and Dick Olson. Reprinted with permission.

Other Life Lessons
Work with what you have

Visit the Nappaland website

Also on the Family Channel...
How to choose your mate
Work with what you have