Launch (Saturday, April 6th)

Saturday, April 6th

Launch : to put into operation or set in motion : initiate

Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NRSV)

Whoever observes the wind will not sow;
    and whoever regards the clouds will not reap.

In my life I know I have missed several opportunities to follow some God-inspired dreams. A few appealing career ideas were tucked into my heart, or suggested by a wise mentor, or even offered directly to me. But I hesitated. At times I lacked the self-confidence to pursue a new venture. On other occasions I didn’t want to spend the time and money to further my education. Most of the time I thought it would be best to wait until later, when I would have less responsibilities. When ‘later’ arrived, I felt that I was probably too late to begin!

Fortunately, God has always been able to take my missed opportunities and redirect me into something new. I did enjoy most of the careers I ended up pursuing. Now I love serving in ministry, writing devotionals, and spending time with our grandchildren after school. God has helped me find other paths to take throughout my life, the way God always works for good in spite of our shortcomings.

When God whispers a special dream into our hearts, we feel excited and inspired- but our inclination may be to wait until the conditions are perfect. After all, we DO want to succeed! We believe we will do better when we have more time or finances or health or less responsibility. It’s not that we don’t want to pursue God’s call on our lives, we just want to be sure we can do it well…

Don’t you marvel at the four fishermen- Simon, Andrew, James and John- who immediately left their nets and boats to follow Jesus when he called them (Mark 1:16-20)?

Through the Spirit, Jesus calls us today, placing dreams within our heart. It’s good to use wisdom and discernment when we make life decisions. But sometimes, like the fishermen, we are called to just set out. The newly-called disciples didn’t know what all was in store. They didn’t even have time to look back, although it seems that wasn’t necessary for them. They trusted that this Jesus would show them, teach them, and go with them on their journey. They only needed to follow HIM.

Has God inspired you to launch a new career, vocation, opportunity, or way of living? Is today the day to begin? Ecclesiastes speaks to us about hesitation. If the farmer waits until the weather conditions are perfect, nothing will be planted and nothing will be harvested! We need not wait until we find the perfect route, perfect conditions, or perfect time. We can venture out in faith today, trusting that we will be shown how and where to take each next step.  We don’t even need to know where this journey will take us. We just need to follow Jesus.

All definitions are excerpted from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Photo credit: Aaron Burden on Unsplash