According to the Interwebs, the full quote that I take this post's title from goes something like this:

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

Robert Burns

The quote is a great reminder that we can (and should) plan, but that we can have no assurances that everything will proceed according to our plan. The universe contains too much entropy to offer any such guarantees to us. Besides, things change really quickly once you start following your carefully constructed plan. This not a new phenomenon and has been pointed out before:

No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Also:

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Mike Tyson

And my plans have seen similar unexpected changes. Specifically, the client portion of my plan has changed. The client that I was working for when I departed previous Benevolent Employer discontinued the project and are now seeking alternative ways to achieve their end result. This is unfortunate, but given their client's insistence upon a deadline, I don't blame them in the slightest.

My honest response to the news was relief. It was an interesting project and I was enjoying working on it, but the moment it switched from "As you can put time in on it" to "We need it by this date! Are you done yet?" it was only a matter of time before they decided that a solo programmer wasn't going to be a good fit for the project.

So, now we look for a new client, but that's slightly challenging because of the "reasons" that caused Benevolent Employer and I to part ways in the first place. I'm feeling pretty calm about this because the more I think and pray about the matter, the more that I am certain that I'm supposed to concentrate on the church management software part of my original plan. And if I've learned anything over my time in the church it's that the Lord can open and close doors to guide you away from what He doesn't want you to do and towards what He does want you to do. Our job is to pray and seek His will and then proceed with the least amount of hesitation we can manage.