How do I proceed?

In these final days of 2011, I am faced with a liminal space in life. There are decisions and doors that I must cross through and it is difficult to know what are my own individual, ego driven decisions and what things I am to simply listen to the voice of the Spirit and obey.

I know that I am not able to abide by and follow the direction of “the world”—which is the guidance provided by those who own the stock and the little tech company I have sold, yet I am bound to it because of the payout that awaits me…if I can assist the company in achieving the modicum of stability that it has maintained for the past 5 years. That is dependent on so many factors, and so much future goodwill of our clients. It can create anxiety, if I but allow the anxiety to exist.

I have faced such a point several times before—where I stood on the precipice of the future with darkness and change ahead. In fact, I have and you most likely have- faced a future where it is dark and the way of God’s will was not clear before you. My pastor Bruce McIver at Wilshire Church in Dallas(late 1970’s) used the analogy of an automobile’s headlights. God’s plan and his specific desires for you lie ahead of you like a roadway in the dark, with hills and curves ahead. Your way is lit for just a few hundred feet ahead. Yet, because of your experience with autos, headlights, and highways—you gain a level of understanding that enables you to proceed along the highway at 65-70 MPH…you have gained trust in the US Highway System and the aggie engineers who built the highways in Texas, that the road is smooth and the way clear for you to proceed, hurtling into the future at breakneck speed, most of the time.

There are times, however, when you must slow down, focus your sight very carefully and proceed with utmost caution. There are also times when, because of the interest you have in the immediate surroundings, you intentionally slow down and take in the sights, with keen awareness. There are times when one must pull out his GPS* and make certain the direction one is heading is the right one to bring him to his intended destination. * GPS-“God Positioning System”

This is a good analogy for me today. The road is dark ahead. I don’t know the road, what curves or bumps or obstacles lie before me.

I awakened early, at 3:17 am, with the future’s uncertainty on my mind.

I know the truth of Erwin McManus’ point in his book, ‘Chasing Daylight’—and I summarize: we need not pray for God’s will for our lives in order to make right decisions. We need not pray about what He would have me to do. We need not pray until we have done all in our power to obey what his revealed word in clarity has clearly laid out for us to do. So the sequence is not pray then obey. It s obey, then pray.

So, in light of that, at 3:30am, I went back to His Word, which is already before me…and returned to a passage which has illuminated my path before.

It is this word –given once again today, on December 3, 2011, that the Lord intends for me to absorb, remember and obey.

The familiar passage is Luke 18, the words of the Master.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

  People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Okay, so what is the word I must obey? How should this keen word from the heart of Christ be applied to my immediate context? How can obedience come from this direct word?

Clearly, I must continue to remain, abide in Him. “Pray and not give up”, was Yeshua’s intent for his disciples as He told them this parable about the widow and the unjust judge. He uses hyperbole. He compares an unjust, crooked judge to the Father. If this sorry excuse for a judge will finally break down and act on this widow’s plea, then how much more will the Father in heaven who created you act on your behalf to grant justice to you?

Okay. Got it. I will stay before you, Lord. I will remain in yoke, Lord Christ.

But He is not done. His word continues in its application.

As usual, he is most concerned about the condition of one’s heart. So he incisively brought this general lesson to my mind and imbedded it in my heart.

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted”… and “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Okay, got it. I see now. I must be very intentional about the posture I take towards all the changes of which I am in the midst. A child-likeness. What are those characteristics? a short list…

Trust, contentment, humility, open heartedness, full dependence on my Lord and Master, awake and aware of the immediate blessings of the day, sharing and enjoying life with my playmates, loving and enjoying my family, including my Father in Heaven, and enjoying life in the church—all in the present moment of life—today!

That is what I must “do” to obey Him. It actually doesn’t involve me doing anything. It is more my posture towards the One who undergirds, and even provides the breath I breathe.

That is what being “in yoke” means to me, to obey Him, today.

Thanks be to God…for his applied word.