This command is a tried-and-true, familiar verse. But what does ‘lean not on your own
understanding’ really mean?
Especially when we use
our minds to think, process, make judgments and decisions all day long?
When am I to “lean not on my own understanding” and when do
I decide I DO need to make this appointment, save up the money for this purchase,
or go forward in this job change….based on my own reasoning and basic common
sense and wisdom? Isn’t this actually leaning
on my own understanding?
The answer to this question is more complex than a single
post, and not really my point to consider today.
What I would like to draw from this is the related truth
that I put before you:
God’s callings in day-to-day life are very often counter-intuitive to our
natural reasoning.
Downright
paradoxical.
And this is true all across Scripture in all kinds of areas:
(Whoever would be great among you would be your servant. The first
shall be last. He who loses his life shall find it. It is better to give than receive. See a paradoxical
pattern here?!)
I noticed this truth lived out in my Saturday morning….just
yesterday. (And I’ll circle back to
Proverbs 3:5, just wait.)
Setting: Crazy
busy week with obligations every night, a big test on Thursday, early mornings, work meetings and
church responsibilities….all smashed with the regular work/family /home
stuff. Exhausting week, emotionally and
physically. And I had friends coming for lunch the next day.
Decision: Saturday
was one of 6x/year meetings with young seminary wives: I’m a part but had no
direct responsibilities. The topic to be discussed was fear, and it is a 30
minute drive.
Sigh.
My Own Understanding:
I was “tired”, I had a hectic/busy
week, I had home stuff to do and an assignment due in by that night, and I was
bound by no “law” that said I had to attend. I don’t even consider fear (the topic) to be
that relevant to me, and drive time alone was a full hour. I’d been to most others
of these meetings. I didn’t have a strong desire to go. = I don’t really need
to go.
Trust in the Lord:
Over the years in my life I’ve learned the following:
- Others are blessed when I attend an event—my presence and participation encourages
- I am the recipient of truth and encouragement when I attend an event—even when I don’t feel like going at first.
- What I gain or what another gains when I attend is RARELY ever known by me, and when I try to judge beforehand the benefit of attending, I am rarely accurate
- The risk of missing something God wants for me is MUCH higher if I stay home than if I attend.
- The possibility of Satan getting his way (to keep me from something good) is much higher if I stay home than if I attend.
And so the regular pattern of my life
is to attend, not as a legalistic guideline, but as a wisdom discipline because how I feel about going to a
given event is fickle and unreliable.
And so I went.
(Curious? How did it go?)
To the joy of my own soul, God
used the morning to encourage, teach, challenge and delight.
My favorite quote: “Be wary,
as you serve others, of your ‘inner feminist’---the
voice that says you are not getting what you deserve in all of this and this
isn’t fair! “
Thought provoking statement: As wives and mothers we use all kinds of noble reasons to stay in our homes and not venture
out in love as God calls us.
Laughter: “We as older women slow down on the shaving our legs,
which is good so we can give attention to our newly-developed mustache.”
Smile.
(I arrived home, just after noon, much more relaxed and energized
than if I would have stayed home. )
Going to that meeting was a result
of God enabling me to “Trust in the Lord” in a practice that continues to bring me rich fruit.
Staying home would have been the result
of “leaning on my own understanding” though staying home, in one sense, made perfect, logical sense.
But that is the gospel's transforming effect…. the
counter-intuitive nature of God’s kingdom:
upside down.
And it (He!) is good.
And it (He!) is good.
Thank you, Lord, for the paradoxes of truth that you open my eyes to
see. I know they come only because of
your grace.
Elaine, thank you for this! I am refreshed by your candor and it was topped with a good laugh at the end! I had hoped to attend that CWF meeting as well but it happened in conjunction with a church outreach event. Thus, I am glad to read your valuable highlights!
ReplyDeleteJean: It occurred me after I had arrived on Saturday that I should have offered you a ride. (Didn't know you had an alternative event!) There were handouts by both speakers, so I'd encourage you to get those, as you are able. It was a good morning :)
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