Things Are Not Always as They Appear
Hi friends! Next week we will start with another faith journey. Today, I wanted to share what God has been reminding me of this week. It begins with something a little funny. Enjoy!
As the story goes, the picture below was drawn by a young child and given to her teacher when asked what she wanted to do. Look and then read on.
As you have probably seen for yourself, the drawing seems to suggest that her mom was an exotic dancer. It was then told that her mom subsequently sent a note to the teacher that read:
Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out of every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole. It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more.
Whether this story was true or not, it accomplished two things. It may have made us laugh a little bit, and it reminded us that things are not always as they appear. Sometimes our circumstances seem to clearly point one direction. However, if we only looked at our situation through the filters of what we could do and understand, we left God out of the equation. He sees multiple dimensions of our circumstances that we cannot, and He is orchestrating all things for our good and His glory.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)
Currently I am writing this post with mixed emotions. This week I had my last day at my job as a scientist. I ran my own research program and independent laboratory, which many in the field never have the opportunity to do. It took years of training, long hours, hard work, and sacrifice to achieve the rank of assistant professor. I finally had the autonomy to ask the scientific questions that I wanted to pursue, yet now I was giving it all up.
Over the past couple of years, the Lord had opened doors for me to continue to stay in science. I had been awarded a couple of huge grants, had an amazing collaborator, and the field was more enthusiastic about my type of research. At the same time, there were doors that were closing. After a major setback, I wondered if staying would ultimately lead me down a road where my integrity would be compromised. I also knew that God had called me to write Draw Near to Me, and it takes a lot of time and effort. Those things seemingly indicated that it was time to shift in a new direction. I prayed many times about where God was leading me, but there was no clear answer. He was silent.
My mind is very analytical. After decades of being immersed in science, I have grown accustomed to assessing data to steer me toward the correct path. However, when I decided to leave, I walked into a black box. The unknown. It was against the logical, safe, secure, and clear path that I preferred.
Immediately after leaving my career, the enemy actively made me question my decision. I had previously struggled with the financial aspect of resigning from my job. Sure enough, right after my last day I discovered my car could not be repaired. I would need a new one. We also discovered that the decking that supported our patio was rotting and needed to be replaced. The enemy was piling on the financial burdens. If I looked only at those circumstances, I would be running out to find a job ASAP while beating myself up for voluntarily leaving science.
But God. I know He has given me something that requires me to continue to move in faith. When we are presented with this type of decision, we can either continue to move or become frozen in fear. This reminded me about something I heard about impalas. Hang in there with me for a moment, there is a point to this.
Impalas are medium sized antelopes found in Africa. They are about 2-3 feet high at the shoulder and up to 4-5 feet tall in total (ref 1,2). They can jump upward almost 10 feet (3m) high and 33 feet (10m) in distance (ref 1). We could think about the vertical distance this way, they could easily jump over another impala if necessary. Last time I checked, I was never able to jump over my friends while they were standing up, no matter how petite.
Now think about impalas that we see at the zoo. Why aren’t they jumping the low barriers that contain them? Apparently, the barriers are designed to be just high enough that the impalas cannot see what is on the other side. Although impalas are more than capable of clearing that height, they do not jump to freedom because they cannot see where they are going to land.
This reminds us of the following point. How many times have we been more than capable, but we do not move because we can’t see where we will land? We are not sure of the safety of the other side. How often do we freeze and not experience true freedom because of the unknown? How many opportunities have we missed to see God move because of that fear?
A long time ago, I heard a sermon by the late Timothy Keller. He gave an illustration about God. I won’t get it verbatim, but it was something like the following. When your children were little, they may have asked you for permission to stay out later to play outside. As a loving parent, you would have helped them make the best decision. However, by the time they are in college, it would be odd to have them call you up and ask if they can go play frisbee outside on the quad with some friends. By that time, you wanted them to make wise decisions based on all they have learned over the years. In the same way, the Lord may not always tell us the answer. It may boil down to pray, guess, and go based on what you know about Him.
Another statement Tim made in that same sermon was an encouragement to me. When asked if he knew for certain that God had called him to go to New York and start Redeemer church, he said that he replied, “No!” That surprised me. If anyone, I thought Tim Keller would be someone that would know if he was called without a doubt. He continued by saying what he did know was that there was an opportunity and even if he made the wrong decision, God would use it to equip him for the next thing.
God is sovereign over everything, and even if we take a wrong step, He will use it for our good and His glory. With Him, maybe our circumstances are not scary after all. We never know what God has in store for us on the other side of walking in faith until we step out.
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