Turning the Page to Slo-Mo Down
Ever watch yourself in slow motion? My kids absolutely love the slo-mo setting when taking videos on my phone as if the accentuated and granular movement has more lasting significance. Or maybe it’s just a clearer video when there is no noise to distract the action. If only the world around us could slow down that much in real life, then maybe we could see things with greater clarity. Or might it be that we move so fast because we’re afraid to reduce the noise to a whisper lest the restlessness of our hearts might become audible.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a quieter and slower pace of life lately, and not because I scripted or pursued it. During 6 months of chemo, I found myself with a lot more time to think, read, or just be. Obviously some days I didn’t want to do any of those, but my family and I reaped the benefits of a different cadence – especially because we were all together and had the overwhelming support from our family and friends to rally around us. The things that mattered most rose to the surface, and there was no racing off to the next thing at work, church, or whatever.
As scans came back clean earlier this year (praise the Lord!), my wife’s greatest fear was thinking the rubber band would snap right back to our prior speed. Part of that is knowing my personality and how I’m driven and wired to go go go, but another part is that we’ve just been given an abundance of opportunities over the years. And while we’ve gotten better at not saying yes to everything, the sheer nature of opportunity is that we want to chase it and tackle the unknown. Or at least that’s how my mind works.
But as I recently heard Andy Stanley say on his leadership podcast, opportunity does not mean obligation. Therefore, we must choose carefully and intentionally pray in preparation of our opportunities. Not for what we want or think is best in our own eyes, but rather to align with His will and plan. There are a few Proverbs that have been extremely helpful and instructing when it comes to reframing “my plans” including:
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21)
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:1)
In other words, we’re learning to let go knowing that we’re not in full control of when doors open or close. This has led us to pray through Revelation 3:7 by specifically asking God to close a door that no man can open and open a door that no man can shut. And as Courtney and I consistently prayed this through treatment and wrestled with what might be on the other side – vocationally or otherwise – God delivered another mighty sharp left turn for us (you know, where the sign says slow down or else you might veer off the cliff…).
After nearly 20 years in the research business, God emphatically (and dramatically) closed the door. While the path was unexpected, the outcome was not because we see this as a simple and quite direct answer to our prayer. Furthermore, the charge to slow down has been even more apparent as we are now in a season of waiting for the other side of the open door prayer.
So thus begins my Chapter 2. How God fills in the pages from here will be fun to watch as now I get the slo-mo keys. Which I think will help us see new and different opportunities, almost like at the end of Field of Dreams when Ray’s brother-in-law asks where all the ballplayers came from all of a sudden and resolutely told him he can’t sell the farm (yes that’s technically a spoiler alert, but we’re approaching 30 years on this one which is well past the spoiler statute if you ask me – particularly for an all-time classic).
I’m not sure what God is asking us to build just yet, but I do know that He will come. He has come. And we rest in His presence and purpose, which is the clearest item on our to-do list at the moment.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)