Growing Pains

Photo credit: Tanya ChaponovaThe DeepThoughts Painting 

     For six-years, I have walked in a place where I now believe, I may have settled. I was enthusiastic about a career path for growth, development, and continuous acceleration.  Growth and development turned into stagnation. At least that is how it felt to me. I went through a period of feeling despondent. Though I loved my profession, I sought ways to escape the environment.

    Inclining your ear to the heart of God positions you to fulfill assignments to benefit his people. Being in a career that was becoming a dead-end was not the end to my growth, but the end of an assignment.

    Under the weight of the pressure of the weight of every assignment, there is that slight chance that you can abort your purpose. Moreover, there is a God who is faithful to strengthen you and gird you up for the journey ahead.

    It is natural to become callous about the assignment. How do you stay focused? It is like a train that almost becomes derailed. Through inspection, qualification, maintenance, and training one can assess potential hazards. The sooner we realize the dangers of our decisions we can avert the consequences that lay wait.

    So I pivoted and readjusted my mindset and did what I always did, waited on the Lord.

Isaiah 40:31 states, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

    In my field of work as a microbiologist, I was responsible for training new employees. I loved my work and the people. However, my assignment was quite different. It was to be a light in a place that was dark and cold.

    I struggled when I started my journey, the tears, fears, pain, anger, motivations, were all part of the journey of becoming. God knows our end from our beginning. It is learning to trust him with our insecurities that makes all the difference.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16

    God will always prepare you for the place he takes you. It is your willingness to be processed and allowing the strength of God to bear the weight of your burdens

    I have now come into a new land, and the opportunity is great, yet burdensome. Moreover, with all that I have observed in this new season of my life requires a sober mind. I realize that where I am now, it was never a case of development; moreso, a case of the establishment.

    Never allow the fear or trepidation of thinking that you are not worthy enough to walk before Kings. Understand that God is the one who qualifies you. I thank God for His Spirit which has revealed to me the weight of the assignment. As I am sharpened in this new place of unfamiliarity, I trust God for the strength and the capacity to be a beacon of His light in the darkest places.