January 13, 2008

God can be pretty darn aggravating at times. I’ve been through some rough times lately and wondered how to make a life for myself now that most of the constraints are gone. Through it all I’ve wondered where the line is between “God helps those who help themselves” and “Lay your cares on the Lord.”

The guy who owed me a bunch of money kind of shafted me, but then came around with a short term fix that at least got the weight off my shoulders for a little while. Then he shocked me by offering me a sales job.

I have never considered myself a salesperson. When I was in college I tried selling encyclopedias. When a shotgun got shoved into my nose, I decided that was not the career for me.

After a life in a technical field, I was making a little (too little) money in a related area, which is how I got into this situation. Well, okay, there were some other contributing factors.

It seemed that this guy was going out of his way to make this work for me, offering incentives I don’t think he would offer another candidate.

Meanwhile, I had talked to a few friends, all of whom thought it was a good chance for me. Pamela had to offer up one of her recent catch phrases, “If you want what you’ve never had, you have to do what you’ve never done.”

After doing some investigating, I was sort of leaning towards trying this, but still had some reservations.

A few days ago, I was led into a Biblical reference (Luke 5:1-11) in which Peter and his partners had been out fishing all night without catching a thing. They were tired and beaten down. Jesus told them to do something they hadn’t done. They did, and received something they hadn’t gotten – more fish than they could handle. This has been popping into my mind for the last few days.

So, I’ve been asking God for some kind of confirmation, despite what my friends have been saying.

This morning, I was also reminded of another story. It had been raining hard and an area was being evacuated ahead of an impending flood. A devout believer decided to put his trust in God, so when the truck came by, he sent it on its way. Later, after he had retreated to the upper deck, a helicopter came by and he waved it off saying that he trusted in God. Finally, as he was sitting atop his house, a boat came by. Again, he professed his faith in God and sent it away. As he prayed to God for help, the voice came down, “What do you want? I sent you a truck, helicopter, and boat.”

So, finally I am reminded of Peter when he was led by Jesus to step from the boat and walk on the water. (Matthew 14:25-33) “’You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’”

Sometimes a blind leap of faith is what is needed.

God sure can be aggravating some times.