Directionally Challenged

Do you ever get frustrated about where you’re headed in life? Or where you’re not headed? It seems that we all struggle with knowing what to do. And to throw a real kink into things, we’re also told that we’re supposed to consider what God wants out of our lives. This can be a real problem! It seems that many times in an attempt to work things out Christians take two sides, or two extremes, and neither one produces any real joy and satisfaction. Either we completely immerse ourselves in a “ministry” of our choosing and shelter ourselves from anything beyond the doors of a church; or we completely ignore the callings of God and choose rather to develop our own careers at all costs, including our own spiritual life. Both are really the same problem – self-ambition found in two different ways.

Proverbs 3:5-6 is a set of very common verses – so common that it’s easy to tune them out and forget what they mean. In them God is telling us to trust Him in all things and in everything we do to “acknowledge Him”. The guaranteed promise of these actions is a life completely directed by God. But what does it mean to acknowledge? Is it a passing glance, like waving to someone riding down the road? Is it talking about an advisory type relationship where we only get God’s advice on “big issues” and let the rest be determined by our own ambitions? Or is there something more there? When we acknowledge God in everything that we do, we’re letting Him into the driver’s seat – yielding control to Him. Now this sounds real great to think about but what does this look like in a practical way? Simply put, we let Him talk and we listen. He does this in a number of ways often seen on a daily basis. What has God naturally gifted you to do? Those gifts are not mistakes! It may not be your career, but God certainly intends to use it. Eric Liddell chose to compete in the Olympics even though he had been called to mission work. He made a statement that though God had called him to missions, “He also made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure!” That’s awesome! God also works in other ways, like your circumstances or the people He puts in your path. Nothing in your life happens just because. Also in Proverbs God says that He orders (or directs) the steps of the righteous. If you belong to Jesus, that means you because you’re covered in the righteousness of God.

I had my planned out to the max and then God unsettled a lot of things in my heart causing me to really question what I was supposed to do. I didn’t get some big neon flashing sign from heaven with arrows pointing out the way to go. Instead it was in the small and “insignificant” things that God led me and it turned out so much better than if I had done “my thing”. If there is one thing I would emphasize in pursuing direction in life it is this – chill out! We spend a lot of time fretting over what we’re going to do in 25 years and in the meantime miss out on what God has for us today! Enjoy the journey! Isaiah 30:21 says that we will hear a voice behind us telling us which way to go. Wait for that still, small voice…and when you hear it don’t let anything stop you!