We live in a very fast paced world and slowing down doesn’t come easy to the vast majority of people. Besides being fast paced, many people are competitive. I spent a number of years as a wife and mother in a direct sales career where I succeeded mostly by competing with myself. As much as I enjoyed the companionship of upbeat, positive women, it seemed I was being drawn away from a core part of my being. So I began putting more and more prayer into my career decisions and the Lord made it clear to me that the direct sales career I was succeeding at and enjoying was not the direction and plan that he had prepared for me to walk in. He had a different direction he wanted to take me and there were several people who tried to dissuade me from resigning my position and letting go of my customers. I have no real regrets about making the decision I did, but so often it still seems that people would like to see me go back into that line of work. My soul, the spirit within tells me ‘no.’ So as often as I’m tempted, I resist the temptation. I resist the temptation by returning to the moments where I prayed, “Which way Lord?”
The answers came in the midst of busy times on occasion. Once the Lord impressed it upon me to reflect on the verse where the Apostle Paul encouraged the people to run with endurance the race set before them in order to win the prize. What I came to notice is that people get busy running, sometimes they focus on the prize, and in focusing on the race and the prize, they miss the path of the race. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but in racing, there is always a mapped out path that is given to the runners and also marked along the way. The runner needs to pay attention to the markings, imagine if the runners only followed the people in front of them and on either side only to find out that the people in the lead had gone off the path of the race. Or what if you were supposed to run a certain race and showed up for a different one? What if you thought it was a running race and it was downhill skiing and you had not trained for skiing? Or thought it was a stock car race and it was for kayaking and you had never been in a kayak? Trying to get in on the wrong race at the wrong time and place could be disastrous for everyone involved!
The bible tells us that God has good work for all of us to do, and that we have all been given certain gifts, spiritual and practical, to be used for good purposes and good works. I hope that wherever you are in your life, whatever work you are doing, you are doing what God has planned for you to do all along. I hope in all your business and busy-ness you make the effort to quiet your mind, heart and soul to pray and ask, ‘Which way, Lord?” and then follow it. When Jesus called his disciples he said, ‘Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men [people].’ Working for awards and places and prizes is tedious, fishing with the Lord can also be tedious at times, but the reward is so much more enjoyable and eternal and benefits more people than yourself.
Quieting your mind, heart and soul to listen to where the Lord is leading takes some discipline and discerning. It’s good to have at least one other person who is well grounded in their faith, is following the Lord and called and equipped to help others on their journey. They can help you quiet down and learn how to do some discerning of your own.
Let us pray,
Lord, forgive us for those times when we have taken our focus off of you and your plans for our lives. Thank you for gently calling us and stilling our minds, our hearts and souls. Thank you for surrounding us with people who love you and desire to help bring people into relationship with you. Please speak your word and your plans into the hearts and minds of people who are off the path you have created for them, draw them back and show them what work you have for them and where it is. We ask this for the sake of the building up of your heavenly family on earth. AMEN
