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Rejuvenation Week…

By August 11, 2016August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

This week has been full of excitement. Yesterday morning, I volunteered to assist a ministry friend that I have known for more than two decades. He is one of the icons in the community working in the field of career transition and I spent several hours working with people who are in between jobs. We talked about all sorts of things relating to the topic of finding employment. The statistics surrounding this problem are staggering. Somewhere near 46% of working people hate their jobs and more than 7 out of 10 don’t like the work they do. Couple that with the impact of job loss and how families suffer as a result and you begin to see the problems that face our workplace communities. Life is difficult for so many people these days…

And then, starting today, I attended the annual Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit – the one leadership conference I look forward to every year. As usual, I rode in on leadership fumes this morning and already I can feel my tank being refilled. The timing of events this week are more than coincidental. Because when I look at the opportunity of working with career transition candidates coupled with the power of the leadership summit, I can’t even imagine where the possibilities could end.

On top of that, my first doctorate was in the field of coaching and counseling people and families in career transition. And Roger and Rich, two of my ministry partners, did career transition work with me for years in the early part of this century. With some of my other responsibilities in the corporate world winding down, who knows but that God is tapping me on the shoulder again – letting me know that another season of my life is about to start.

And since God doesn’t waste anything, I can hardly wait to see how all the ministry pieces fit together – leadership, career transition and time… I have been thinking about this for years but have never felt right about pulling the trigger in a grand way. That’s not to say that now is the right time, but I have to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and asking Him to lead me in the direction that best honors God in the process.

We do know that our past experiences make up our skill sets and prepare us for our next assignment. Now that I will have more time on my hands, it may just be the signal to pour myself once again into heavy duty ministry – maybe even write a book on career transition. I don’t know for sure, but I am listening… Sometimes being obedient to a calling is more difficult than it looks. It is our natural tendency to try to figure it all out in advance and that just isn’t the way that God works. He only reveals to us the next step in the journey and implores us to trust Him for the rest of the story. As you have heard me say before, we are on a “need to know” basis with God and some things we just don’t need to know…

Our verse for the evening deals with Esther, a Jewish girl who eventually became a queen and saved her people from certain destruction at the hand of Haman, a palace official of King Xerxes. Overcoming her fear of stepping up to ask the King, her husband, for assistance, Esther becomes the unlikely heroine in the book written about her. The most famous verse in the Old Testament book is spoken to her by her relation, Mordecai. He reminds her, in Esther 4:14, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

In other words, this is divine destiny. God’s desire will ultimately be accomplished – with or without her. Does she want to miss this blessing? Do we want to miss the blessings of being in the will of the Father? My encouragement this evening is that God has a grand purpose for each of us – far better and more dynamic than we could ever dream up for ourselves. My prayer is that you will ask the Holy Spirit to touch your heart in such a way as to be able to discern what God wants your next steps to be. It requires active listening and that isn’t always easy – believe me. But I am a receptive vessel and I hope that you are also. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

2 Comments

  • Dave Toussaint says:

    Scott,
    Great blog. We do have a divine position which HE has in mind for us. We need to act like it and go for it. Congratulations.
    Dave

  • Mark Jacobs says:

    Scott,

    I’m not in the habit of “ranking” your blog posts, but consider this one in the Top Ten.

    Your journey has been an inspiration to many (myself included). This next season of your life will surely be as exciting as seasons past. My prayer is that you patiently wait for God to inform your next step(s) and boldly step out in faith when He reveals His plan.

    Don’t lay up (unless you’re playing golf).

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