“Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the path of wind… so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:4-5
I was reading Ecclesiastes a few weeks ago and was struck by this passage. The entire book is such a weird mix of candid honesty and deep truth that it’s always been one of my favorites. But this particular section reminded me of how hard it can be to trust anything.
The section is talking from the perspective of a farmer, and discusses how tempting it is to just sit around waiting for perfect circumstances. Waiting to plant or harvest based on weather becomes futile because you can neither fully predict or prevent what comes. The same is true not only for all careers that we pursue, but also with our relationship with God. The theoretical plan is awesome, but actually having to trust through the multiple steps and big wins as well as huge setbacks can be daunting.
It’s easy to get frozen. To be stuck. To find yourself staring off into space not sure whether to go your way or God’s way. Or not sure whether you want to go for it at all. It’s easy to worry, or wonder, or question, or fear. It’s much harder to go. Harder to put on your boots, or pick up your bag, to get back to the work and walk into the unknown, unsure of how it will end. It can feel so uncomfortable to put yourself in a situation where you aren’t convinced the ending will be great.
But honestly, that is our entire life. We have goals, and intentions, and plans, and sometimes everything works out perfectly, or better than we imagined. But sometimes things go a lot worse then we possibly could have seen coming. But in spite of the possibility for pain and destruction, we can’t stand around blindly expecting for something awful. We have to trust that the win is a possibility, and move forward doing everything we can to get there.
For those who do step out, sometimes we will be redirected as we go. Sometimes the initial plan is not the end goal. Sometimes we get flattened and taken out and wonder if we should start fighting again for something that sounds impossible. But the greatest thing about trusting God is that when we trust Him more than we trust our plans, the delays and hindrances cannot change who we are.
I started out my new book, In Between the Lines of Faith and Work, talking about the dichotomy between my career goals and reality. For far too long, I put all of my trust and all of my hopes in whatever incredible endeavors I could dream up. But then when my plans would run into a problem, I would start to feel hopeless and overwhelmed. It took me a long time to realize that my goals should not be my ultimate goal. My goals are the things I do on the way to my ultimate goal, which is simply to know God better and glorify Him. When I put my goals first, everything is worry and re-strategizing as life causes setbacks. But when I put God first, I get an identity as His child, I get open doors that I couldn’t make happen on my own, and I get the chance to follow my dreams.
Trusting my career to give me value ends poorly. But trusting God as both lord and savior gives me the opportunity to move forward through the ups and downs, knowing He’s got my back no matter where the wind blows.
Hey Ashley!!! I really liked this blog entry. I can relate to this so much!! The sentence you wrote “ trusting my career gives me value ends poorly “, struck me. I think a lot of people use their profession as their main identity. But if they lost their job or something terrible happens in their profession, it makes them feel awful and a part of them is destroyed. I try to see my identity more than more profession in order to be happy.
Just like you, I strategize about my future, but this violates faith in God and trust him. We can only strategize so much until it becomes unhealthy and turns into an anxiety disorder. We worry because we are afraid of not being in control of situations.
Thanks for the blog.
Mary
Yeah, it’s so easy to plan and so hard to trust sometimes! But in the long run, we’re much better off if we trust in Someone that doesn’t change instead of our plans. Glad you related to this- great to hear from you!