This is the story of my life. Probably the same for most of us, as we go through the daily races from sunrise to sunset and throughout the occasional restless night.
Embracing the journey of life, means accepting the setbacks for what they are, and navigating your way through them, and adapting to your circumstances, instead of getting anxious, frustrated or angry. I’ve learned that responding THOSE ways leads to more setbacks and jams that only pile up more anxiety, frustration or anger.
This is nothing new, it’s more like an echo of the wisdom Adam & Eve had to have come upon as they toiled under the sun planting the first gardens and weeding the first annoying weeds, profusely sweating as the gnats, ticks, chiggers, flies and all creeping crawling things would get in the way of such a simple task.
Joseph and Mary had to navigate through setbacks that would confuse and frustrate ANYBODY. I mean, why would God let them show up to an Inn, in an insignificant town, on a night where there is no vacancy, and put the poor father and mother in a position where their circumstances are so NOT ideal, especially when they believe that Mary is carrying the Son of God in her womb, and even let her go into labor, where the smelly, nasty animals reside? Besides noticing his humility, we MUST seek His wisdom.
“It is what it is” is the phrase I often repeat to myself as I endure 15 hour days of hard work in the sun, with merely a 5-10 minute break in between it all, with no days off until our work is done. The work alone contains enough frustrations and setbacks to stir me up, and there are so many negative things going on in the earth this very second, that I could write about it and make anybody, extremely angry, frustrated, full of strife, and stirred up to do something about the corruption, deception, and evil going on in the world.
To see and experience God’s wisdom and timing for ANYTHING, is by completely giving the situation to Him through prayer. Yes, that sounds totally religious, boring, and seemingly counterproductive if you look at prayer a certain way.
Ideally, I would love to be in constant prayer throughout the day, but my job, my thoughts, hopes, desires, plans often get in the way, but are also just a fact of life. What I’ve realized, is that ideals are attainable, if God gives the grace to get there. The grace is there, but I believe most of us never reach for it with all we’ve got. I know I don’t… I’m a dreamer. I try, and the effort counts, and God loves it… but truly… I know I could do better.
So as long as I know I could do better, and my transparency about myself with Him is ongoing and I’m not trying to hide in my shame from Him, I should REALLY enjoy seeing the work He accomplishes as I find peace in His leadership, by not responding negatively to any situation. Ideally I’d love to get through each day without a grumbling, or a deep groan or “BLAH!” about not being able to be around someone I want to be with, or to be back in the hotel and not working in the insane heat, or that I wouldnt just lose stuff all the time. Heh.
ANYWAYS… my point is… that by waiting patiently, praying for, and observing the ways of God BEFORE reacting emotionally, is essential to witness the wisdom in the proverb
“12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
I wish it didn’t seem so counterproductive. Because it’s not… I’m still working, trying to be wise with everything in life, but instead of acting on emotions, I’m learning that I need to keep my eyes on the prize, and look for the little lights at the end of each tunnel that I know is His direction.
A man once told me, “i have wisdom from pain, and pain from lack of wisdom.”
Now that I’ve seen and tasted and experienced his words, now I charge you, and myself, to embrace the journey, pray, and SEEK and OBSERVE His wisdom, before reacting hastily and digging deeper holes you can’t get out, or clogging up the highway to your hopes and dreams by looking for shortcuts around His way, because we’re all just impatient, weak, and lonely.
