This week I met a humbling reminder: I’m not the driver. I don’t own the bus or control it. A unique piece of Christian faith is that Jesus is what I’m always headed for but also my way there; He’s what I reach for but also the proverbial arm I reach with. He is my WAY to the Father. He is also the WAY to where He has called me in this life.
I’ve been striving and building a house in vain. God placed something deeply in my heart, and I am so intent on meeting it that I have been kicking up dust to get there. I can see it far off, just the shape of it, but not well enough to pick out the details, and I want to know it exactly so I can rest and trust God that it’s really there.
But would that be faith? — to have the security of knowledge before believing in the promise of it. I’m a human and I want to get someplace but am also foolish enough to think I’m the best way there. And funny enough, I don’t even like working with myself. I’m my biggest critic and most impatient boss. There’s not a lot of peace/rest to be had in operations where I’m the taskmaster.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (Pr. 3:5-6)
A traffic jam of priorities steals joy and freedom. I’ve fallen victim to the red bubbles at the bottom left corner of my screen. I’ve nearly become addicted to the restless feed and swallowed up in its endless appetite. I get stuck looking for the next big thing. Eventually, this leads me to a spiritual desert. This desert is filled with idols, lifeless and cold to the touch, powerless, half-buried and decaying in sandy dunes. And these rusted, upturned, and voiceless gods — when given the time and space — are somehow still so able to convince me that success is about going faster, doing more, and accomplishing only what I want.
But this week I met a freeing reminder. What saves me from such a desolate place, or keeps me from ever getting there, is the choice to “lean not on [my] own understanding” and “in all [my] ways acknowledge Him.” In ALL of my ways. Before all other things, acknowledge the Lord “who is able to do immeasurably more than [I] ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20) with my time/space. So in all of my goings and doings, I’m working on just acknowledging God, and what I’ve found so far is that my mindset totally shifts as I offer my life to Him in this practical way. It’s like I acknowledged God over the big picture of my life, but lost sight of the fact that it’s the miniscule tasks and little mundane parts of each day that add up to the big picture. If I don’t offer to Him what is presently holding space in my mind, or place back on the altar the energy I am giving out to what I think matters, I get lost in it all. If I do“acknowledge Him in all [my] ways,” then I “trust in the Lord with all [my] heart,” and do not “lean on [my] own understanding.” As a result,“He shall direct [my] paths.”
The greatest choice I/we/you can make is to acknowledge the Lord, because He wants to give us peace and guidance.