The Precise Thing

When I decided to leave my job as a CFO, it was one of the hardest things to do and, yet, I didn't really decide this actual thing.  What I decided was to let God tell me what the steps were.  I didn't decide that I would do all these steps that were laid out before me because there were no steps laid out before me.  There was always just one step.  I only knew what each step was right before I did it.  The first step was to let go of my self-planned life, put it in His hands, and let Him show me each step for the days after.  I had to pry my white-knuckled grip off of my career and let it go.

"...I learn that making decisions is not about doing the right thing or the wrong thing.  It's about doing the precise thing.  The precise thing is always incredibly personal and often makes no sense to anyone else." - Glennon Doyle Melton

Once I decided to let Him tell me what to do, I couldn't turn back.  There was no way to undo my realization that He had a better plan for my life than I did.  I knew that by admitting this I may be ridiculed and the road may not always be easy.  But each day, I do what He tells me to do for that day knowing that this path leads to somewhere really wonderful.  

I love to read.  I also love to listen to books or sermons or motivational speakers.  One sermon that I listened to as I was processing all of this by Steven Furtick was about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.  Until listening to this sermon, I've never thought about how out-of-his-mind-crazy Joshua must've seemed to his army as he told them to march around the city one time a day for six days and then on the seventh day to march around the city seven times while the priests blow their trumpets.  At the completion of this, they were to blow their trumpets loudly and the people were to shout.  Then, the walls of the city would fall.  (I mean, that only makes logical sense.  Right?)

If you put that scenario into modern times, it seems pretty ridiculous.  Joshua and his army would certainly make the news and be ridiculed and humiliated for being so naive to think that all you had to do was march around a city a few times and the walls would fall down.  Furtick jokingly considers how the army wives must've reacted.  Maybe their conversation went something like this: 

Army Wife: So, honey, what did you do today? 
Soldier: Well, you know, we just... um... walked... around the city. 
Army Wife: Oh.  Just walked?  You didn't fight anybody? 
Soldier: No, not today.  We just walked today.  I think we're gonna fight some tomorrow.  You know, we gotta take down these walls. 
Army Wife: Oh, okay. Well, tomorrow then. 

God didn't give Joshua or his army any indication during those six days that they would be victorious on the seventh day. He didn't make a few bricks fall each day that they walked around the city so that they could see they were making progress with their marching.  He waited until the very end.  Until they had finished their mission in total faith.  Sometimes, to be victorious, we have to be willing to do something that looks ridiculous.   (Sermon: "Don't Stop on Six")

Building this business and this blog and this new way of life is a vulnerable, unknown, open-ended process for me.  To some people, it may seem totally strange... even ridiculous... to make such a drastic change.  But I'm willing to look ridiculous because I have total faith that God has a plan that is so much better than my own.  My responsibility is to do the precise thing and the outcome is God's. 

And on those days when I momentarily take the steering wheel back and then start to panic because I'm not sure of the way, I have some amazingly supportive friends who remind me to listen to Him and just do the precise thing.  I don't need to know the next ten steps.  I only need the next step.  Just do the precise thing.