My pulse quickened and my head swam a little when I read her e-mail, “Thanks for applying at Examiner.com. We have reviewed your information and believe you would make an excellent Milwaukee Family Activities Examiner.” What?!?! I got it?!?! Confirmation of my first official writing gig made my spirit jump with excitement. I just knew! JUST KNEW! that this was the start of something big for me!
But as I stand here on the threshold of one of my dreams becoming reality, I have to pause and ask myself, “Is God any more God right now when I am ecstatic and having my dream fulfilled than He was when I was suffering and afraid?” I believe God wants me to examine this thought today. Why is it that I approach dream fulfillment so differently than I approach trials and tribulations?
Trials and tribulations drive me straight to my knees. In fact, before I even process what the hard situation is, it seems I am before His throne, petitioning Him. Yet when I got that e-mail, I shot up a quick prayer of thanks and then got busy with the fun stuff: creating my bio, choosing a picture, filling out my I-9. Even as I am typing this I am feeling God’s conviction raining down on me, “Don’t rush about in the excitement of this moment and forget to thank the One who gave you this moment! Don’t forget to praise Him! Don’t give Him just a cursory thank you and move along!” I need to remember to slow down and fall to my knees! I need to praise and thank Him. I need to PRAY!
When trials and tribulations come my way one thing I always struggle with is Why God? Why? Why is this happening? Yet for some reason when dreams are being fulfilled I do not wonder why. But guess what? There is a reason for this dream being fulfilled just as surely as there is a reason for my suffering. God has a purpose for me becoming a Milwaukee Family Activities Examiner, just as much as He had a purpose for us struggling through how to pay our electric bill last month. So when faced with the fulfillment of my dreams, maybe I need to wonder Why God? Why? Why is this happening? Maybe I need to ask God to reveal what He wants to do through this opportunity so that I do not miss out on any of the blessings He wants to bring through it.
The final thing I do when trials and tribulations come my way is “gird up my loins” and get to work on the hard stuff. I need to remember too that dreams aren’t just blissfully floating along on puffy white clouds. The fulfillment of a dream involves hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. One of my fears as I take on this new writing gig is that this blog will suffer. It is going to take a lot of hard work to continue juggling the balls I normally have in the air (work, family, homeschooling, youth group) and add in these new writing balls too. However, nothing worthwhile comes easily. So I need to gird up my loins and get to work on it!
Whether you are facing the fulfillment of a dream or struggling through trials and tribulations today, I think your strategy should be the same: fall to your knees, ask God why, and then gird up your loins. I know that’s what I’m going to do.
What a wonderful blog. Thankfully, maybe because our lives have been so heavy in trials and tribulations, I finally have learned how to do this :) BUT I hesitate to even write that because that's when it gets difficult when we speak out loud that we can do it. However, it's not me doing it but the Spirit of the Lord. I know w/o him, I'd be completely unable to "praise him in the storm".
ReplyDeleteSo happy for your writing gig. YAY !!!!!!