Since the man who was about to publish two of my books is laid up with pneumonia, I’m taking my own advice about How to Handle Impediments. This is not going to be easy, but here you go, for what it’s worth.
You move forward prayerfully, you work hard, you follow all the leads, you take all the advice, you put in the time, you run the race….and it all comes to a screeching halt. Someone else drops the ball, crisis looms that dwarfs your petty work goals, you are betrayed and undermined, an insurmountable obstacle pops up out of nowhere, your best work isn’t good enough. Now where are you?
Well, you are right where you should be. God is not trying to get work done through you, but is getting you done through the work. All that elbow grease and courage it took to get as far as you did was the making of you. And all the patience and trust you’ll need to handle this disaster is more of the same – it’s the making of you, too!
Wasn’t the work itself important to God? Didn’t He want you to do it? After all, you did pray, you did ask Him to stop you if you were going astray, you did deeply desire to be in the center of His will, you did ask for all those graces you got and all the doors that opened…and He answered, YES, GO ON, I’LL EVEN HELP YOU! And now? It feels as though He set you up to go further than His interest in the project really warranted. Your angel investor seems to have backed out and left you with all the debts, embarrassment, doubts, and pain. When you ask for advice, He seems aloof, wondering from afar what you’ll decide to do about the situation.
My advice to you? Don’t do anything! If you’ve been in the school of forward movement for a while – a heady, exciting, worthwhile place to be – you’re now in Stillness 101. If you try to move forward without a strong sense of clarity, you’ll muddy the waters further and make yourself feel more defeated. Be still, and take heart, and wait on the Lord. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. You no longer live, but Christ lives in you. To write is Christ, to publish is gain.
If you are impeded, even in a path God was just yesterday making so straight for you, then stopping to consider the new reality is your first move. Collect yourself. You need to make space for the pain and frustration and confusion you are, understandably, feeling. Especially if the obstacle has to do with the behavior, or non-action, of others, you’ve got some emotional response that must not be overlooked. It is part of the new reality. Take a deep breath. Offer the work you were doing back to God as a sacrifice. Beg for His help just to trust Him, just to wait upon Him, just to be present to the situation in peace.
There have been more times in my life than I can count when the impediment to good work was the exact thing that work needed. Course changes have moved me into unrelated work that later made substantial contributions to the derailed project . People entered my life that, when it was time to revisit and rethink and restart a ‘failed’ project, seemed to be crucial to its forward movement. Friends and family have probably benefitted more from the life lessons I learned from God’s obstacle course than from all my ‘successes’. That’s because the content I create is so much less important than the person I become.
Impediments are the making of you, and often of your work. Please, though you may feel defeated, do not believe that God is not on your side, or is actively opposing your best efforts to honor Him through your work. He is 100% FOR you, and you’ll be amazed what He can accomplish in your work by developing your capacity to trust in that perfect love in which you live and move and have being. I believe that the best things you can write are those that first are written in your life. As God works in you to want and to accomplish what He wants done, whole books are being written that someday may appear in print!
God bless you all, and especially any who are facing impediments just now.
It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work. And that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. Wendell Berry
wise words birthed in experience
This is precisely the lesson I’ve been learning for the past several years. Thank you for the reminder, which I need every day.
Lisa, you are very welcome. I’m glad to give you a little giftie as I feel close to you because of all your beautiful photos posted on facebook, and the many times your posts have reflected my thoughts….too bad we kindred spirits are so far apart…Dallas, right? Sigh….I’m in Kansas if you’re ever driving through!
I’m glad you enjoy the photos. If you ever venture down this way, I’ll take you for a walk along the lakeshore. Someday maybe I’ll create photo calendar or something — after I finish a couple of books! God probably gets more work done on me while I’m out walking and taking those pictures than He does while I’m writing.
Wonderful post and so appropriate to the Advent/Christmas Season. Joseph and Mary both were sure of their path as Husband and Wife, then an Angel appeared to Mary and asked her to be the Mother of God. Joseph finds his wife pregnant. After this impediment is cleared up they are forced to journey to Bethlehem where all the doors are literally shut. A humble refuge becomes a destination for Kings and Poor alike. A harrowing escape into a foreign land becomes the fulfillment of prophesies. Yes they too were unsure of their next step. We can model our choices on theirs.
Dennis, I’ve also heard there’s a legend that after the kings had followed the star so far, they couldn’t find direction from it anymore and had to look down into a well to see it reflected there in order to judge its position. This is connected to the tradition of linking Epiphany with the wedding of Cana and Christ’s baptism in the Jordan….all ‘manifestations’ and also all miracles-in-water so to speak.
…not trying to get work done through you, but is getting you done through the work… I’ve never heard that Charlotte, what a marvelous comfort for all the little hits and misses and insurmountable tasks of everyday.
God bless you and Merry Christmas (germ free of course!)
<3 Kassie
Merry Christmas, Kassie!
Thanks Charlotte,
Let’s also pray for the improvement of your publisher’s health.
Happy Advent!
Don
Don, thanks for your prayers! Operation tomorrow….please storm heaven. I’m glad I can just offer up those books as a sacrifice with these prayers. I’m sure you have your own sufferings to add to yours.