Plans. We all make them. They rarely ever pan out they way we expect. And that’s okay. Noah Baum Bach’s “Greenberg” is a brilliant character study of one man, Roger Greenberg, who is lost in life. Having come back to Los Angeles where is family and friends are to house sit for his brother’s home Roger meets up collides with his brother’s assistant Florence. But it’s relationship with his one time best friend Ivan that struck me the hardest. (Roger’s relationship with Florence makes this a really enjoyable film as well)

Roger and Ivan were once in a band together. They were close to a record deal until Roger nixed it by saying he didn’t agree with the terms of it. Then the band was no more. This action changed the course of Ivan’s life forever. Back in Los Angeles after years apart Roger tries regain his friendship with Ivan not realizing that Ivan probably hasn’t completely forgiven him. Their friendship now consists of hanging out and old jokes that aren’t funny anymore. The course of life has changed for these two men. Roger has no real friends and Ivan is trying to make his family work along with growing his relationship with his son.

Everything comes to a head at a party where Roger knows virtually no one there and is messed up on drugs and alcohol. He calls Ivan a few times, interrupting Ivan’s dinner with his family, almost begging him to come to the party. Roger feels the need of a friend in this moment. He mistakenly thinks that since Ivan was once his best friend that he always will be. The truth is that friends come and go as all people do. Some take natural courses away. Some we push away, sometimes inadvertently. Some friendships just don’t go as planned. Our plans rarely ever pan out the way we expect them too.

Ivan shows up at the party. He’s upset. He tries to convey to Roger they aren’t really friends anymore. Roger isn’t getting it. Ivan tells him their friendship can’t be like the old days because he has a family now and he wants to make it work. He announces he’s going to try to have another kid. Roger basically tells him that’s no life to live. This upsets Ivan even more. He said he’s accepted that this is his life. Then words of wonderful wisdom come spewing from Ivan’s mouth, “It’s huge when you finally embrace the life you never planned on.” Wow. Read that again. “It’s huge when you finally embrace the life you never planned on.”

There’s much hope in the phrase. When plans don’t pan out the way we expect them too hope is all we have; hope that although we’re outside our original plans life will pan out for us. Hope should be one of the most spiritually important aspects of our life. Especially when it comes to our life plans. Look at Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Plans rarely pan out they way we expect. Sometimes we’re better off for it. If we embrace life the way Ivan did. Plan. Hope. Embrace.