Ordered

Writing this for someone out there that needs a lil’ direction. Yes, you know who you are.

This is about being ordered. This is a quick message on ordered ways when we live in the paths and ways of God. It’s a quick encouragement for someone out there that is wondering if the doors God so very opened and closed shut in your life was fair, “right,” or wrong.

So, anyways, every song has some type of ordered rhythm to it. The rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, as if it’s a heart-beat beating in a chest. That beat, that beat, that beat, that beat or that past beat down on Harambe’s chest (#RIP) had a level of order to it. So, whether the cadence of said rhythm sped up or it slowed down, there was order to the beat at many points. Or whether the crescendo of said song increased or decreased (decrescendo) there was still order/rhythm to it. So, it didn’t matter if the pace changed or if it got louder or less louder, there was still order to it the whole time.

This is a quick blog post for that person out there with a decision in this time of life. Should you go with Taco Bell or Chipotle? Should you go with Cousin Vinnies or should you go with Domino's? Should you go with Chick-fil-A or Raising Cane’s? I mean, the answers are pretty obvious for the first two questions as it’s obviously Domino's and Chipotle all day every day, but that’s in MHO (my humble opinion).

Just kidding – I’m talking about other types of steps. No disrespect to what type of food you should order when you want it but it’s more so about the steps of opportunity and desires that God brings your way or/and has placed inside of your heart.

“God, should I take that opportunity?”

“God, should I pursue that opportunity or route?”

“God, should I knock on that door?”

“God, should I pursue this?”

“God, should I enroll in THIS program?”

“God, should I go THAT way?”

“God, what should I do?”

“God, where are You leading me?”

The somewhat open-ended and rhetorical questions are endless, and if I’m honest and being authentic with you - they’ve led me to multiple moments of decision paralysis when I’ve been faced with certain decisions that cause me to analyze every single opportunity cost wrapped up in the decision. The decision paralysis is where I don’t want us to be in, which is why I’m writing this today in hopes that you glean from the Word of God for truth, guidance and direction knowing that peace can flow from a deeper understanding of not only God’s Word but how He seems to move through process.

I think it’s worth mentioning to someone right now before stepping deeper into ordered paths here to encourage you that if you’re wondering whether or not we should’ve done what we should’ve done in a prior season and taken what was in front of us, to know that we can’t reverse our decision of our past but we CAN make peace with it.

Anyways, often times God-given paths and opportunities present themselves as doors that shut and open at different points but that it is God who moves and shuts doors from existence. Moreover, it is He, when we are in right living with Him and seeking Him for direction that guides us.

And now I’m thrown to a classic movie called Monsters, Inc. where there were quite literally thousands of doors that these Monsters would venture into to do their job of scaring little children. Whether or not it is the right door, then, becomes a major plot line later on in the movie as the Monsters seek to put baby Boo back in her door that she was taken from.

I think it’s worth now finally delving into the Scriptures here and quoting Psalm 37 where David acknowledged God as the One who truly directed his paths: “The steps of a righteous (wo)man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.”

David acknowledged God had a way of ordering his steps even when they probably didn’t make sense to him. Because… it didn’t make sense for a young man to be called to the King’s palace to play the harp for King Saul at a young age. It didn’t make sense for a young lad like David to be put in the king’s armory where he would be in charge of armor before being in charge of soldiers. It didn’t make sense for a young dude like David who would slay some lions and bears in protection of his sheep before he would ever slay a Goliath. It didn’t make sense that he would shepherd sheep before he would shepherd a kingdom.

It. Didn’t. Make. Sense.

Process. Doesn’t. Make. Sense.

Order. Doesn’t. Seem. Ordered. At. Times.

But let it be known that God is a process-oriented God who respects and honors process more than cutting the corners of process and integrity (AKA what is right). Mind you David was chased around by King Saul for years and when David was presented with an opportunity to kill the one who was chasing him, he opted for the higher road by honoring not only process but the “LORD’s anointed” in that David could’ve killed Saul in that cave but chose not to. David chose integrity and process over cutting corners.

But the thing is, there are so many of us, me included, that order or have ordered steps out of the flesh inside of us and not out of the Holy Spirit of God that is supposed to lead us. Yet, for what good is it to cheat our way to purpose something that we want now? For the God I know out there brings things to fruition upon His timing and according to HIS procedures and plans.

Regarding that Monsters, Inc. door there is a RIGHT door. Many of those doors seemed right, but a lot of them ended in the wrong. Proverbs 14:12 à “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

For not every opportunity or thing that presents itself your way is of God. Many things SEEM right, many opportunities LOOK good, many friendships look right, but they could not be when looking deeper under the surface. Prayer + discernment will arm you to look critically at what seems right.

So, that’s where we get to the conclusion that we must pray through opportunities and decisions from the One who oversees everything ahead of us from a 30K-foot-view-of-a-perspective. Whether or not that is the right opportunity or path to go down is up to interpretation of the understanding and insight that comes from above in the vertical alongside potential counsel that stems from those around us in the horizontal.

Whether or not to open up that business, the answer is to pray before. Whether or not to take that job: pray. Whether or not to open that door: pray. And you can anticipatorily guess my next answer to another question here: pray.

One of my favorite verses that I now have permanently and unapologetically etched onto my body is Proverbs 16:9 “In their hearts humans plan their courses, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

One can think he is going a certain way, but it is really God who establishes steps and brings order where the steps didn’t seem ordered. Honestly, I look at this verse and have to repeat it to myself many times because I need the “peace that surpasses human understanding” to guide me when I question my current reality. When I question God’s leading in my life and the doors He has opened, if David’s unconventional path to what God had for him was filled with twists and turns, shut doors, open doors, trials and sufferings, how much will our paths be littered with the same?

David’s steps didn’t look too ordered but when you see all where God led him and how He prepared him, He really brought purpose and order to the steps and stages in his life. It was as if God did just as much as He did in David when he was a shepherd as He would do from THAT EXPERIENCE that stemmed from being a shepherd, as he would shepherd people and take down Goliath-woolly-mammoths.

Experience and education compounds and it's knowing that God does not waste prior seasons when He wants to bring purpose in the Now.

Calling a quick audible here in switching it up because sometimes God will lead us at a different pace from the realm of grace that pours out in certain seasons. So, at some points things could be moving super-fast and at other points be perceived to be moving incredibly slow. In one season, doors and opportunities were opening up left and right, and in another… the pace of grace slowed down. It’s not that He is not leading us, it is that pace/rhythm of our steps has changed. So, let the Pace-Maker determine the pace of the day or season of life in front of you knowing that He places and strategically positions Esthers for such a time as this. The crazy part about the whole book of Esther in the Bible is that it had God pulling the puppet strings behind the scenes of Esther, but that God was not mentioned ONCE in that book. Yet, He was so evidently moving, if you see the ordered and methodical steps that brought Esther to where she was supposed to be. Thus, it usually isn’t until AFTER that we see the hand of God pass by us as He flexes that sovereign bicep of His, showing what was up His sovereign sleeve all along.

So… is there a right door? Yes. Prayer + trust + belief in the Scriptures that point to God leading us and guiding us, and rest assured that God brings things to pass on His accord and timing.