God's Got This!

As a counselor, I serve as a change agent in others' lives, which puts me on a constant growth curve myself.  Add in a milestone birthday (40), which increases my urgency to accomplish things before I die.  Stir in some perfectionism and a bent toward guilt and anxiety, and voila! You have a perfect recipe for striving. The word strive means: "1. Make great efforts to achieve or obtain something. 2. Struggle or fight vigorously."  Beneath my apparently calm exterior I'm like an unruly dog who just spotted a squirrel and is practically choking against the leash.  I want to accomplish God's ultimate will for me, today if possible! On one hand, I can scripturally justify my striving:  I am fighting the good fight or running like one desiring to win the prize.  But on the other hand, is this striving God's desire for me?  Some clues are leading me to believe there is a place of ease within His will that does not equal treading water. 

Clue #1:  God is not needy
Acts 17:25 states that God is not "served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people]." HE does it; he doesn't need little me and all my efforts that much.  Emily Freeman, in her insightful book entitled "Grace for the Good Girl," puts it this way:  God "doesn't sit at your table, feeble and frail, waiting for you to feed him...He stands strong at the head, graciously filling your plate with all that He is."  He doesn't need my frantic efforts.  He doesn't need my striving, my desperation to know and to do.  He is calmly running the universe and steadily leading my life. 

Clue #2: God decides
Continuing in Acts 17, verse 26b says, "he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live...For in him we live and move and have our being."  The modern-day anthem "In Christ alone" further illuminates the message of trusting in God's ultimate sovereignty: "In Christ alone my hope is found; He is my light, my strength, my song.  This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.  What heights of love, what depths of peace!  Where fears are stilled, when strivings cease!  My Comforter, my All in All, Here in the love of Christ I stand!"  My times are in His hands and my life he directs like a watercourse! 

Clue #3: God is so strong and wise
Emily Freeman uses imagery of living as a little girl on Daddy's lap.  You don't have to be so smart.  You don't have to be so capable.  Lucky for you, your daddy is the smartest, most capable Man in existence.  Your heart can swell with pride at His strength and wisdom, and you can wholly trust that he is taking care of all the details.  You were tailor-made to accomplish certain things and the One who made you is helping you every step, every moment.  On the outside, you are doing what it takes to live life well and fulfill your dreams, but on the inside you are that little girl on Daddy's lap, not worrying about anything, because you are the beloved daughter of the biggest Man there is!

Clue #4: God is creative and persistent
Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, promotes the idea that God's will is unstoppable.  You can try to manufacture circumstances to make things happen as you think they should, but God has 250 ways to make it happen that you never thought of!  Pastor Joel tells of a certain lady who was pulled over by a police officer due to a rolling stop at a stop sign.  As the officer wrote out her ticket, she told him she was a 3rd grade teacher at the nearby elementary school.  The officer handed her the ticket, and she drove away, upset about the financial setback the fine would cause her family.  A short while later she was pulled over again, by the same officer.  He told her, "I did not treat my 3rd grade teacher very well at all; to make up for it, please give me that ticket."  And he ripped it up.  God can use a police officer's belated remorse to accomplish his will for you if he wants!  God can use a donkey to speak according to his will if he wants.  God can use empty jars to accomplish his will for you if he wants.  God can do anything with the precious, beloved child he made and formed for certain purposes.  Good luck trying to mess up your destiny!  It won't be easy to do!

Can we take our place of ease in Daddy's lap, being fully confident that his will will happen?  Yes!  God's arms do not hang limp at his side, needing to be strengthened by our efforts.  His will for us is plain to him, and he has more than one way to make it happen.  Thinking that you are strong and wise enough to either bring it to pass or mess it up is actually an arrogant position, little one!  Truly, God has got this...RELAX!


Scripture References: 1 Timothy 6:12, Philippians 3:14, 1 Corinthians 9:26, Psalm 31:15, Proverbs 21:1, Numbers 22:21-33, 2 Kings 4:1-7.

Passive or Passionate?

Passive:
1. Receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in return.
2. Accepting or submitting without objection or resistance.
3. Existing, conducted, or experienced without active or concerted effort.
Synonyms:  inactive, inert.

Passive courtesy laughs when the joke is not funny, feigns interest when the speaker is dull, is dutiful, if insipid.  Passive maintains a blank expression; she is pallid and nondescript.  Her catch phrases are: "I don't know," "I don't care," "Whatever you want is fine."  Passive is immobile, a victim of circumstance.  She is a milkweed blossom carried along by a rushing stream.  As she floats along, she sees things that spark her interest, catches glimpses of preferred pathways.  Momentarily, she struggles to voice her desire, even considers exerting the effort to turn over, swim for shore, and climb up the bank.  But she falls silent, turns back over, and continues her indolent voyage.  As she acquiesces to the stream's insistent pull, she pushes down the bile of regret, stuffs her resentment, blinks back stinging tears of longing.  "Oh well," she says to herself.  "It doesn't matter."

A Word Picture: Woods Fork creek

Butterflies pause, sun themselves on the rocks, languidly showing off their intricately patterned wings. Their wings open, close, open, close. A spider skitters over the rocks. Various bird calls fill the air space, between the stream's low murmur. Dappled green leaves wave gently against a mellow blue backdrop. Sunlight lands here on a fallen limb, there on a partly submerged rock. Upstream, the gravel bed shimmers like a magical cobblestone path. "Follow me," it invites. The water gently meanders, easing around rocks, under twigs, heading to destinations unknown. Shall I follow? The whispering stream both beckons and lulls. No, from the comfort of my chair I am content...to watch and wonder.