Many years ago I went through a phase whereby I played poker with some buddies once a week and before long I got pretty good at it. Different players had different quirks that were surefire indicators that they had a good hand. It might be the way they placed their bets, tone of their voice, expressions, eyes, nervous quirks, or some other factor, but if I carefully concentrated on it, I could almost always tell when they had a good hand or didn’t.
There’s a song with lyrics that state: “You need to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em”. I attributed my success in poker to being observant of my fellow players and when I discerned that they finally got that hand they had been waiting for all night I would fold ’em, (early), and if I obseved that they didn’t have a good hand I would hold ’em (until “the last dog died”).
I’ve noticed that life is kind of like a poker game. There are times when we need to “hold ’em” and times when we need to “fold ’em”. Being observant and being willing to take action are both necessary in order to prosper. If I had a decent hand of my own and chose to stubbornly ignore the warning signs such as sweat popping off someone’s forehead, a nervous smile appearing on their face, and their eyes wildly darting back and forth for the first time that night, and I continued to bet anyway, chances were I would lose, and sometimes big.
In other words after I observed the signs, if I wanted to win I had to take action on those observations.
There is an old adage that “you can’t put a square peg in a round hole”. If the avenue we are traveling leads us to insurmountable problems at every juncture, the odds are that we need to find an alternative route. Caution should be used here because we definitely should not quit or change our direction at the first hint of a problem. Success is rarely obtained by giving up at the first sign of trouble, even serious trouble and perseverance is a highly prized attribute and entirely necessary if we ever hope to accomplish something big.
But there are times when what we want is simply not within God’s plan for our lives. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell the difference. This notion reinforces the need for careful observation, prayer, meditation, listening to God’s gentle voice, and taking action on the answer that comes to us.
What do you think will happen if someone who builds new homes observes that the new home construction business is not going to be healed and become vibrant again for at least ten more years, and yet they stubbornly continue attempting to do things exactly the same way they’ve always done them in spite of having observed the warning signs? Better to switch gears and find a career that makes more sense such as repairing the old homes that are in need of repair, or finding a place to relocate where new homes are being built, or maybe even getting retrained and finding a new career altogether.
I believe the important thing is to earnestly seek to find what GOD wants us to do rather than what WE think we should be doing. In my own experience I’ve found that if I drift away from God’s mission for my life, I will become restless, feel stress, and not be capable of finding peace or enjoying God’s rest until I get back on track.
If I could name one thing that I would ask God to change in His dealings with us, it would be to verbally communicate a more exact game plan for my life. When a decision needs to be made I go to the Lord in prayer in search of the answer, but in all of my years of prayer God has never directly boomed down His answer from heaven, or written His answer on the sky.
Instead God has chosen to communicate with us gently, subtly, and silently. We must pray and then earnestly meditate and listen to the Spirit. Sometimes it seems difficult to discern what it might be that God wants us to do, but I often wonder if it’s more of a reluctance to take action, because we are stubborn and want to go the way we want to go instead of God’s way; or perhaps it’s merely laziness, in that we don’t have to work very hard in our current situation and it would require tremendous effort to take on something new; or perhaps it is a lack of faith and the fear of stepping out into the unknown to pursue another route.
It can be maddening when trying to find God’s will for our lives, particularly when we have many different choices. Often I’ve observed that He delays His answer for months or even years. Perhaps God chose to communicate in this manner because He wants us to come to Him in prayer and carefully analyze all of our options and at a time of His choosing when conditions are optimum and we are ready He reveals it to us.
In spite of my impatience and frustrations I for one know in my heart that God set it up this way because it is the perfect way to do it. Thus I’ve accepted it and am committed to working within that system and being patient.
Yikes! Did I just say I was committed to being patient?
Hmmm…The verse below indicates where this is heading…
Job 14:1
“How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!”