Redirection Granted
Redirection Granted
Well, I caught myself daydreaming this morning. So many things I would love to accomplish or have the opportunity to do and finish well. The "finishing well" is the key. It is easy to procrastinate or start and get busy with other things and never get back to that one or more projects. The sense that leaves me with is a failure. I sometimes determine I won’t start another project until these others are completed. Often I walk away from doing any of the projects including starting something new. So often we miss God’s direction in the middle of our restlessness.
Many of us can relate on some level with the procrastination. But we need to be reminded from time to time.
Our time here on earth is limited. God has numbered our days.
There is another side to the procrastination game and that is restlessness. We may be in a season in our life that we have opportunity to…take time to read, write, or create. Other times maybe we have a season that we are able to rest, albeit it may only be a day or weekend.
Having lunch with a friend recently we talked about her choice to be a stay at home mom. She loves her work and the people with whom she works. The position she holds is one in which she created. She has built the team and charted the direction of her division of the organization. She had some of her identity and self-worth beginning to be about what she does regarding work rather than just about who God created her to be.
My friend has two children and one on the way. A very exciting time for sure. She felt in her heart it was time to let go of work and stay at home and be wholeheartedly present with the family. Undivided time, energy, and mindshare.
In our talking, I was reminded about seasons and our taking advantage of the seasons that God provides for us. There have been times in our lives that our world gets redirected. Sometimes by our choice sometimes not so much. Over the years I have found that when I embrace that time I grow. I gain peace and find an intimacy with God that wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t “embraced” that season.
Redirection is hard sometimes, especially when we love what we are doing.
Physical challenges provide the same need to accept and explore the new direction we face. I was reading a letter from a friend in ministry. She was stating how difficult it was for her in a season when she was unable to do a lot of walking because of a back injury. How difficult it was for her to ask for help or accept help from others. She was accustomed to being the one doing for others not receiving from others. I can relate. Both giving and receiving are needed.
Redirection. Without a doubt, this one is particularly hard for me. I naturally walk between 7,500 and 10,000 steps a day. At the start of my challenge, I couldn’t walk 350 steps without severe pain. Holy buckets that was a mind and heart bender. I am now up to about 4,500 to 5,000 now depending on the week. But it is a season in my life. I don’t know how long or how ultimately this season will go but I do know when I embrace the challenge, I find strength and peace.
I know there is something for me to learn through the process. I know that God has allowed this hard place for me to come closer to Him. He also wants me to take advantage of the time I have to explore things I never would have without the challenge. I am blessed.
Years ago in 2014 my writing started out of a hard place my husband and I were going through with business and a significant amount of long-distance travel for many years. I have come to have an enormous appreciation for the military wives with husbands out on tour.
For me, I cried out to God for help. The direction that took me was writing. I can write a business plan or marketing plan but articles on faith? That would not be me. I reminded God of that. I even had lunch with my neighbor about it. Her response was if you feel God is directing you to write you better write and He will equip you. Originally what I wrote about was God providing me with what I needed for that week. It was startling how accurate the writing was in meeting the need.
My first article was October 21, 2014. It was titled “Gratitude.” Every Monday morning there is an article written by me. When starting out I would tell you I’m not a teacher and I’m not a writer. Turns out I am both.
Without “redirection” I would never have started to write. Today the articles are read in 109 nations.
God uses circumstances in our lives to bring us to new seasons in our lives. Sometimes those circumstances seem like they would break us. Instead, when we embrace them, they build us. There are times when God gives us opportunity to come closer and we get time to listen and hear His heart for us and those around us. There are times when we have learned what we needed so we are equipped for the next leg of our journey and so there is the redirection.
There have been many times I have kicked against the challenge or missed the opportunity all together that I regret. But when those hard places or quiet opportunities come and I ask God to help me, I find the redirection is spectacular.
Jeremiah gives us God’s perspective:
“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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord…”
Jeremiah 29: 11-14a New International Version (NIV)
Redirection is not always easy but when God is invited into the season we are facing, we find grace, peace, clarity, and hope.
Today can you ask God to help you in the midst of the redirection?