Relinquishing Control

At the moment I’m sitting here with a hole in my face and a cast on my hand. The outcome of pursuing a dream I feel like God has put within my heart. I hear people talk about Gods timing and his perfect plan. That should get me to relax and trust that I’ll bounce back and things will work out all in Gods time. However, all I can think about is getting back on my bike and doing all that I can to make what I think is Gods will for my life come to pass. That’s the problem.

When we think we know what Gods will is we try to make it happen. We work on our own to bring about what we feel should be the next step in Gods plan. If only we could learn to hand God the reigns and realize that each bump in the road is not a hindrance, merely a stumbling block along the path that God has placed before us. Those stumbling blocks can be put in our way by the devil and wreak all kinds of havoc on our pursuit of following God. They should not stop us, we know that God will never give us more than we can handle. But at times they can slow us down as they cause us to doubt, question, and look for other ways or opportunities to get where we think God wants us to be. If we could only learn to relinquish control, and trust that every bump on the road was allowed by God, perhaps for our growth, our safety or any number of other reasons. We would not get ahead of ourselves in thinking that we are bringing about the will of God.

If I could look into a crystal ball and see an end result for my life, be it marriage, a career or a specific accomplishment, I would automatically start doing everything I could to bring that about. I would rush right through the first open door that looks like it might be able to get me there, never paying attention as to whether that is God's specific plan. We tend to take it upon ourselves; "since we know this is God's plan this must be his way of getting us to that end result."

God in His infinite wisdom doesn't allow us to see that end result. Instead he places desires on our hearts and requires us to act in faith that where He is leading is where He wants us to go. I believe He gives us just enough to keep pursuing, keep moving forward, in His time, toward the end result that He has for us. We must learn to follow those "divine nudges" and even the desires in our hearts, but not be so zealous that we forget the one who gave us that desire. In the end it;s His plan four our lives and we must submit to His way of accomplishing whatever He wants to do through us.

Beginnings

I never liked to write. Had you asked me a year ago I would have placed writing at the top of my "things I do not enjoy" list. It wasn't until after a trip to a motorcycle show of all places that I discovered my passion for writing.

I attended the Indianapolis Dealer Expo in hopes of securing a job in the motorcycle industry and in the process managed to score an interview with the editor of my favorite magazine. I was fortunate enough to connect with he and the publisher and they gave me my first journalistic assignment. A week later while working with a group on a senior project I had the idea of publishing our findings in a Christian magazine. Amidst great opposition from my group mates, I finally convinced them that if the editor and publisher of the other magazine had faith in me maybe they could to. It worked. I wrote. They published and whats more...I got paid! And my group mates even let me keep the proceeds.

The most exciting thing about this whole process is that it unleashed within me a desire to put my thoughts into words. Thanks to the book Strength Quest, I learned in college that communication was a strength and not simply an irritating quality that I had adopted from my father. I have since begun to embrace my desire to share and have written other articles, blogs, and journals in an attempt to further this new found passion. I hope this blog is another outlet for me. Please feel free to respond, comment, agree or disagree. I simply wish to share my heart and what the Lord is teaching me as I continue on this faith journey.