There was recently a guest lecturer in one of my leadership classes at ORU who came to speak to us about his journey climbing the corporate ladder at Chick-fil-A. He told us about his humble beginnings, sleeping in a room that only contained one mattress on the floor and an upside-down milk crate for a table. He eventually sought freedom from this way of life, inquiring local businesses regarding ways to launch his career as a businessman.
He mentioned that in his early years he often wished he could just skip from square one to square fifty and be done with it. But he quickly told us that he was so thankful God had not granted him this wish. He said that if he had been miraculously propelled forward to the corporate world of Chick-fil-A without enduring the hard work that went in between, then he would have quickly failed as a result of his improper preparation.
After this lecture, I got to thinking… how often do we ask this of God?
We desire to hastily arrive at our final destination, to be granted our deepest desire, without enduring the preparation that will equip us to succeed when we get there. We grow impatient with the Lord’s timing and forget that He is doing a great work in our lives even in the seasons of waiting.
Sometimes God intentionally prevents us from seeing twenty, ten, or even five steps ahead because He knows we couldn’t handle the magnitude of it if He did. He simply asks us to take that next step forward and allow Him to reveal His plans little by little as we journey with him through the chaos of life.
I have a tradition that I started a few years ago in which I choose one word on New Year’s Day that I attempt to incorporate into my spiritual walk during the upcoming year. This past January, I was seeking the Lord about what word I should choose to meditate on when He placed one very heavily on my heart: humility.
Admittedly, I scoffed a little bit at the thought. Not really considering myself a prideful person to begin with, I thought surely there was a better word I could choose. I offered other alternatives (maybe faith? God appreciates faith… right?), but the Lord was quite insistent for whatever reason that I learn to be humble.
As the months went by, life got pretty tough, and I found myself forgetting that I had committed myself to learn humility and to find ways to incorporate it into my daily life.
Recently, however, it hit me.
I realized that it takes great humility to surrender your life to a season of refinement when all you want to see is the final outcome. To lay down your deepest longing at the feet of Jesus and instead embrace the season God has placed you in, despite the frustration that it brings. To trust that His plans for your future are good even when they don’t look anything like you thought they would. To admit that you can’t carry the burdens of life on your own, and you desperately need the strength of a Savior.
The Lord bids us to die to ourselves and offer our own lives as living sacrifices to Him. We are called to abandon our own desires, our own ambitions, and our own plans so that we might walk according to His.
I have learned this year that there is great humility in deciding to simply trust. To lay down any conditions and choose to walk in faith that God sees you where you are and is working everything together for good. To embrace your humble beginnings and endure the challenging process of refinement.
In these trusting seasons, God is preparing us for a greater outcome than we could ever imagine or create for ourselves. He is faithful to complete a good work in us. Trust him, dear reader. He will not fail.
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“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these 40 years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 8:2-3
“Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.” Job 8:7
Casting Anchors 