Christian Living
When we have given all we can and it still is not enough, reality will slap us in the face screaming, “You are in the wrong place at the wrong time.” We feel we should be in a situation where we are valued, respected, appreciated, and fulfilled. Even if we know where we are supposed to be, we do not know how to get there. Maybe we are in the wrong job, the wrong church, or the wrong organizations. Maybe we tolerate family or friends who are not nice, make us feel bad, or take advantage of us. Rarely do we know where or what the “right” life will be. We only know the one we are living is definitely “wrong”. There are very few of us who know, for sure, we are in exactly the right life.
Instead of changing things that move us in the right direction, we change things that move us further in the wrong direction. Instead of first changing the difficult things on the inside of us, we change the easier external things. We stop speaking to a close friend, refuse to attend a family function, find a new church, quit a job, or get divorced. Now we have compounded our problem with even more confusing issues. We then move on to the next phase of our life and soon discover that we are still in the wrong place. We blame anyone or anything refusing to admit that the “wrong” is the person we brought with us (ourselves).
We close our minds to any change in habits, patterns of thinking, or deep beliefs. We refuse to give up knowing how things should be. We close our minds to learning any truth about ourselves. We close our minds to any truth about anything that differs from what we have always believed. We limit our potential without ever considering that we are the hindering culprits. Being open to new directions is good advice, but listening to advice is usually as far as we are willing to go. Taking advice or direction is a lot of trouble and we are busy messing up our life. Whom should we trust? Whom can we believe? It is all so confusing. What appears to be wrong may be something beyond our understanding. What may appear right could actually be a two-headed monster. We struggle along in our “wrongness”, further reducing the possibility of "rightness". Sometimes we are sure we are in the right life until the struggling echo of wrongness is unbearable and we do not know why.
The struggle and confusion may be just our perception of our inability to know where we are supposed to be. God has all the information necessary to make the tough decisions, traverse the steep paths, and direct all the searches. He is the one with the map and He is the only one who knows our destination. He is continually working, in spite of our interference, to direct our steps, nourish our growth, and provision us with eternal life. Anything accomplished, seen or unseen, is not really our accomplishment, just as everything we own does not really belong to us. God is the owner, master, and creator of everything, seen or unseen.
I struggled until a close friend gave me the advice that would change my entire perception of life. She said, “Be still and listen for God’s direction. Be still and listen for God’s direction until you hear it, no matter how long or how many days it takes.”
The day came when God took pity on my mute countenance and showed me the thing about myself I had refused to face. It was not easy or pretty, the truth I had to acknowledge. Desperately, I had clung to the perception that my accomplishments were evidence of my worth. I felt compelled to accomplish things that would raise my level of esteem and honor. Underlying this misperception was the lie that I was the author of my accomplishments and in control of my destiny. My words claimed God was in control, but it became apparent I believed deep inside that I was the one in charge. The truth? I refused to “trust” God to be in control. My statement that God was my “helper, co-pilot, or partner," was untruthful, even to myself. Thankfully, God has the power to use “wrong” just as easily as he does “right” because I would not have known “right” if it ran over me. My hidden beliefs and lack of trust were wrong but they held me in a struggle to justify and validate them as "right." Fortunately, God knows the location of all the roadblocks and how to get around or through each one. God never gave up on me until I understood things the right way, “His way.“
I choose God's way. I choose to hear God's direction. I choose to follow God’s map. His map is current, state of the art, and continuously updated. Only a small piece of mine remains and it has notations written all over making it hard to decipher without God’s help. The search for value, respect, appreciation, fulfillment, and the right life is over. Every day “right” is when I listen for God’s voice, am willing to hear, and take action when He directs me. “Right” is easy. God is no longer my partner, helper, or co-pilot. Instead, I am God's helper and willing servant. My responsibility is to "be there."
Striving to listen, willing to hear, joyfully obedient, and making preparations continually to become what God desires is exactly where I am supposed to be. Here I am.
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