Thankfully, I will not actually be growing a beard. Aside from that I am on a journey to look more like Jesus.
At the beginning of the year at my church's leader's retreat, we took a moment to consider the question of what our individual goals would be for the year if we could do anything. Over the recent years, I had overcome the seemingly impossible obstacles and had even more recently seen some long-term dreams come to pass. I had checked off all the major goals I had been perusing and had already recognized that it was time to set new ones and begin to go after them.
I took a moment and considered the question. I was tempted to keep my former pace and find a new big goal to pursue with focused determination. As briefly sought the Lord for direction, the only thing that came to my mind was a certain event from the Bible. When Jesus heard that his friend Lazarus was sick, he wasn't rushed or stressed. He stayed where he was for two more days before traveling to see him. In that time, Lazarus died. People questioned and even confronted Jesus about it, but that didn't stress him out at all. He stayed in line with what the Father was doing regardless of what people thought..
I imagined myself in that scene. I realized I would have felt the pressure of the natural expectations. I would have felt the pull between needing to finish the work I was already doing and needing to rush to save the life of a dying friend. The voices around me would have likely won over the still small voice of the Lord.
I realized I needed to pursue a different type of goal. I needed to become more like Jesus: more free to follow the Lord's voice; more free not to be stressed out by pressures and expectations that would keep me from following the Lord's lead. Not to be irresponsible, but to ensure that the voice of the Lord actually takes first place in my life. Doing so meant stepping back from being way too busy "doing" and stepping into spending time with the Lord just "being."
Slowing down was consistent with what the Lord was speaking. Heading into 2016, someone had shared a picture with me of what they saw the Lord doing in my life. The picture was that I had been sailing against the wind, but now the wind and sea were calm and still. When the wind picked back up, I would be sailing with the wind.
If the Lord is bringing the wind along behind me, I definitely want to be ready to catch it.
I have learned that when you are in the storm, the goal is to survive and make it out of the storm. There is not much opportunity to thoughtfully consider and prepare for the future. On a real boat, you would not thoroughly mend or replace tattered sails during a storm or even along the journey. Any emergency repairs would likely take much more effort and be of lesser quality than those made during more favorable conditions. During the calm, you asses and repair the damage and strengthen the areas of weakness.
After weathering rough and stormy waters for many years, it seemed foolish or even dangerous for me not to take the time to regroup. I don't know what's ahead, but I do know that the time to prepare for a storm is before it hits. I do know that if the Lord is bringing wind, I want to be prepared to catch it rather than tied up and not paying attention.
So enjoying the calm and following the Lord's lead to rest and regroup is what I accomplished in 2016. I don't know yet know what lies ahead in 2017, but I am watching for the wind. Jesus is leading the way and I don't know where we're going, but I'm going to be ready and it's going to be good.
