Adventure

When you are faced with new challenges, new surroundings and new direction how do you respond? What is your typical way of dealing with and talking about these changes? What if you through into the mix that the organization or business you have been a part of changes leadership at the same time?

I must admit that I often get agitated and fretful in the face of such difficulties. Rather than seeing an adventure, I see overwhelming odds and more hardship for me. I look for opportunities to pull back and try to maintain some recognizable patterns in my life that I can hide away in them. I can find some sense of security in my family, my hobbies, my music, my clothes. I look for patterns of similarity with the past so I can somehow make sense of the future.

While these coping mechanisms don't seem unreasonable, they reveal my heart; showing me that I trust in something(s) besides God.

In Deuteronomy 31 Moses makes this statement that I found very comforting in the midst of transitions. "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you, or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."--Deut. 31:8

This statement is not made in a vacuum. Israel is about to cross the Jordan river and enter the promised land. They can see the walls of Jericho in the distance. Moses will not be going with them; this young kid named Joshua will be God's man to lead now. The manna is about to dry up. New leadership + new direction + unknown provisions = dismay in our calculations. God gives us a different equation. God + with you = no fear.

Rather than looking at how the circumstances are changing and trying to preserve some sense of continuance in our lives outside of God, we are called to find this recognizable pattern: God is still with us. He is the one leading this expedition. He will not leave, or forsake you. He is the faithful God who has proven himself reliable in every circumstance up until now. He is the one constant in life that will not change.

Hear what God is saying. He is the one leading you through. Rather than looking for familiar patterns or relationships outside of God. Why not trust him and believe what he has said. He will not leave, or forsake you.