Everybody, Always

I reached zero in my mental countdown.
There was a bounce. The front wheel was there.
I started whooping and hollering and laughing.
Get this: it turned out what had me all twisted while I was in the air
was a burned-out five-cent light bulb.
I spent far too much time circling the field that night because I didn’t
get all the green lights I wanted. I think a lot of us do the same thing with
much of our lives too. Don’t let a nickel light bulb keep you from
fulfilling your purpose. God isn’t surprised we want more confirmation.
He just hopes we won’t get stuck waiting for it.
Who wouldn’t want more green lights? Yet, at some point, we need to
stop waiting for permission and go live our lives. God isn’t stingy with
His love, and He doesn’t delight in seeing us uncomfortable either.
Perhaps we don’t get all the answers and confirmations we ask for
because God loves seeing us grow.
In the same breath, though, sometimes it’s a good thing to pause. One
of the writers in the Bible said to his friends that just because the door
was open didn’t mean it was for him to walk through. The difference
between a prudent pause and persistent paralysis is a distinction worth
knowing.
Recognize when your beautiful ambitions are getting stuck inside
your head. You don’t need to take all the steps, just the next one. God
may not give us all the green lights we want, but I’m confident He gives
us all the green lights He wants us to have at the time. Go with what
you’ve got. If God wants you to stay put, He’ll let you know. We also
have some guaranteed green lights that are always on: our noble desires;
God’s clear instructions in the Bible to love everybody, always; His love
for us; and the gift of each other. You can put a lot of weight on these and
triangulate from there to figure out the rest of life’s unknowns.
The difference between the number of green lights we want and the
number we get from God is a pretty good description of what faith is.
Faith isn’t knowing what we can’t see; it’s landing the plane anyway,