Last week a colleague commented on a jogger passing by: “She’s about finished with her run.” He could tell by her posture and breathing that she was worn out. She could no longer endure. I remarked that when a runner is pacing themselves for distance, their breathing is even and step relaxed yet energetic and determined: You can tell they’re in for the long haul.
Over the weekend I commented to a friend on the peace to be found in knowing fulfilling your purpose is your responsibility alone… If you also embrace that means the timing for advancing it is God’s responsibility alone and allow no man to pressure you into rushing or stalling your process.
This morning I found myself gridlocked in the middle of an intersection at a red light because my speed outpaced the sound thinking that would have kept me from entering the intersection: I literally moved too fast to follow good judgment.
You’re alive for a reason. There is a specific purpose assigned to your life that only you can carry out and only God can direct and supervise.
Once you’ve discovered and embraced that purpose it sets you afire with life, propelling forward, driven toward your destiny.
But we don’t control time. God does. So when a minute feels like an hour or a year like a month, God is stretching and compressing time for us in divine project management. If someone has a problem with your schedule don’t waste time arguing with them about it, tell them to take it to your supervisor.
Our job is simply to keep pace accurately so we’re neither tuckered out, nor frantically pressured, nor charging ahead blindly past divine instruction.
This allows us to submit to Him, instead of futilely trying to force God’s work in our lives to conform to our own ways, desires and thoughts, gumming up the works. This allows us to be the powerful warriors our lives call us to be, moving with strength and in time with accuracy, instead of being cast about by weakness in random misalignment.
This season, be mindful:
Don’t do anything that will wear you out physically, bringing no spiritual refreshment which replenishes, heals, cleanses and rejuvenates.
Don’t let anything that’s not God-sent, including your own thinking, pressure or coerce you into changing the pathway and timetable He has set.
Don’t forget that to follow, you can’t move so quickly you’re unable to hear instruction for the wind rushing in your ears.
Endurance pace. Measure the distance ahead and begin at a pace that allows you to sustain forward movement to the finish line.
Firm stance. Hold firmly and wield sternly the power of being the only one who can run your race, live your life, fulfill your purpose. Be empowered by the truth: The fact that no other person can run or live it, also means no one else can accelerate, decelerate or interrupt your stride. Seek and trust God’s time table only.
Following posture. Move ahead not by sight, but by faith: Like a submarine in deep water, let every inch advanced be predicated not on what’s seen, but on the sound, your prayer sent and His word received so the terrain ahead can be properly assessed before entering. Follow His instruction and pace by remaining still until you’ve received instruction to move ahead.
Walk boldly, surely and confidently into 2013 instead of slipping and stumbling toward it in frantic exhilaration.
Tina Watkins Quaye 