As the detour of my journey enters it’s 12th week (three months), I am choosing no longer to label this time of unemployment as a “detour.” I am instead choosing to  acknowledge it as my “path.” It is the path God allowed, regardless of its origins.

Perhaps calling it a “detour” helped it to feel “temporary.” But this is only a “detour” in my book, not in God’s. He doesn’t use a yellow highlighter to re-route my life from its originally-mapped course. If I truly believe in the all-knowing character of my Sovereign God—and I do— it becomes clear that this is my life’s originally-mapped course.

But now comes the hard part: not worrying about figuring out “why.” Again, perhaps it makes us feel better, but far too often, we hear someone say, or even think to ourselves, “I’ll bet God did that/allowed that so that she/I would learn to….” Or, “God wanted him to do this (whatever “this” is in that situation) so that he would be____.” (And we fill in that blank as well.) A former pastor of mine in Michigan often reminded us in his sermons, “There is a God. . .and it’s not you.” 🙂 Yet in trying to put God into our “this-helps-it-make-sense” boxes, that is exactly what we are saying: “We know why, and we know best.”

This morning in church the message was on I Kings 18, the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. (If you haven’t read that lately, you really should – It’ll blow you away! God really is the God of the Impossible!) How incredibly amazing to see the 450 prophets doing everything, literally everything, they could to get an answer from their false god. They said all the right words and did all the right things, but to no avail.

As I thought about that, I couldn’t help but think of how in these last 12 weeks, I have sought the Lord in a way far too similar to what these unbelieving prophets were doing. You know what I mean; we’ve all done it. “Maybe God just wanted to get my attention. Now that He has it, I’ll get back on course and things will go well again.” Like those prophets of the false god, we try to “do” solely for the purpose of getting God to give us what we want. Or perhaps we cry out repeatedly merely because we think He must not have heard us the first time, or must not really know our needs. Or maybe we think that because we were totally surprised by the situation, God must have been, too.

[Yes, we are told to be fervent, and yes, there is the example of the persistent woman who wouldn’t let it go, and her prayer was answered. So, yes, there are times that God prompts us to do these things. The difference comes in the transparency of our motives—because I believe he wants me to or has prompted me to, or conversely, doing it in order to get what I want!]

So does acknowledgement of His sovereign leading mean that I will now just sit back and let the jobs come to me? No way, un-unh, no how. I will CONTINUE to use the skills He has given me to pursue every lead, every viable option, every recommendation, until God closes that particular door or until He provides the right job or area of work He wants me to pursue. I will continue to follow up on applications. I will continue to pray earnestly that I may clearly know and gladly follow His leading.

What I will not do is refer to the process as a detour. Instead, I will joyfully acknowledge each day as that day’s chosen path from which I get a new view of the incredible character of the same God Elijah served—the God of the Impossible!

Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons. He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood. Then he said, “Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood.” After they had done this, he said, “Do the same thing again!” And when they were finished, he said, “Now do it a third time!” So they did as he said, and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench. At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!” (I Kings 18:30-38)

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Thank you for taking time to read “A Fresh Point of View.”

How are you doing on the path God has chosen for you?