Pardon the Opportunity

I don’t know about you but I do not enjoy being interrupted. If I am mid-sentence or task I do not like stopping for something. At work this week I found myself getting annoyed with one of my coworkers. It felt like their goal was to interrupt any and everything I was doing. I tried to be nice. I tried to not let my agitation show. I definitely failed a couple of times. Then in the middle of my morning, the Holy Spirit began to check my bad attitude. After being interrupted for what felt like the hundredth time, I heard the word opportunity.

That was enough for me. I knew exactly what God was saying to me. I needed to stop looking at these moments as interruptions and start looking at them as opportunities — opportunities to help my coworker, show Christ, and simply be kind. I needed this lesson.

Jesus was interrupted multiple times. The Pharisees would interrupt his teachings to try to find wrong doing. The disciples would interrupt because they did not understand. The crowds would interrupt to receive healing. I can imagine this was frustrating at times. There was even a time when Jesus was trying to find a break from the masses and they followed him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14). Jesus did not snap at these people. He did not blow them off. The Bible tells us he had compassion. Jesus saw all the interruptions as opportunities to teach, correct, and love. He saw the people and had compassion.

It is really easy for me to get caught up in what I’m doing. I can be stingy with my time, grace, and compassion. The Lord spent the other morning reminding me that it is not about me. He has me at my job for others. I needed to stop being selfish. The focus needed to come off of me and my tasks and turn to my coworker. I needed to stop using the word interruption and start using the word opportunity.

Source of Hope

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint – Isaiah 40:31

 I have always loved this particular verse. It tends to be a constant reminder of where my strength comes from. During times of weariness or exhaustion, I can take confidence, through this and other verses, in Him and His power carrying me through. However, as I have recently been reading this passage of scripture, I am beginning to understand this verse and chapter in a whole new light.

Obviously it speaks to the Lord being a source of strength and stability. However something that I find encouraging is that this verse powerfully addresses the truth of hope.  I think I tend to look at hope as an automatically positive thing. I too often forget that hope is quite a neutral force. Just because I hope for something better or hope that my circumstance will change does not mean my hope is placed in the One who ultimately and currently matters above all else. Too often I find myself placing hope in the things of this world like instant happiness and immediate gratification. And yet it never ceases to amaze me that as I continue to hope in these finite things, any victory or peace that I might occur is fleeting and temporary.

What we place our hope in directly affects what we do with our dreams, aspirations and moments of opportunity. It directs what we do with the resources that have been loaned to us. And yet, how many times do we stop to consider this? How many times do we realize where our hope is being placed?

Placing ones hope in God goes beyond simply recognizing intellectually that God is who He says he is. Genuinely placing one’s hope in God is a deliberate awareness birthed from a spirit led conviction that causes one to recognize God as the only thing that matters; that even though situations might not “resolve” or have the happiest of endings that He and only He is enough.

This truth radically transforms minds and thoroughly purifies hearts of rampant self-centeredness. As I experience and grow in this truth I sometimes see myself forgetting these realities and continuing to operate in my limited and flawed perception. I am so grateful that through the scriptures I am renewed and allowed to see God for who He really is. It is incredible to me that as my hope is placed in Him, so my realization of the things that truly matter are directly affected and changed to reflect Him. As we continue on in this mad and unstable world may the Holy Spirit continue to remind us not only of who God is but also where we have been called to place our hope. For it is here and only here that we can mount up with wings as eagles.

Where is your hope?

A Wind Change

The season in life between the colligate years and entering the “work place” can probably be described in a numeration of adjectives-pretty much describing a slew of emotions.

What happens when what “you thought” and what “you actually do” didn’t line up with the plan? What if that plan consisted of a commitment that required “x” amount of school years, a move, a career that contradicted expectations, etc… ?  And you were ready, motivated, accepted to the school of your choice, and you had it all planned out…but then a change in the wind…

 Life happened.

You could fill in the blank and every answer given or every reason had could justify the- wind change.

The Atlantic online posted in April 2013, “53% of college graduates are either unemployed or working in jobs that do not require a bachelor’s degree.” Work Trends-Rutgers May 2012 posted, “Many graduates were disappointed with their starting salary; over half reported that it was less than they had expected it to be.” (NCES) posted since 2004, 42% did not complete a 4 year education.

It happens-life happens and many of us could probably find ourselves in the category of the wind change, by experiencing dissatisfaction or the drive for more. And we cannot forget the ever haunting thought did we miss- the calling? You haven’t miss “the calling” God has for you because you experienced a “little wind” or dissatisfaction.

 “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.” Ephesians1:11-12 (MSG)

 So the wind changed…What do you need to do to change it back?