Like a “Punch in the Faith”
July 20, 2010 | 
Author Like a Punch in the Faith…
So… is it more like a “punch in the face” or a “punch in the faith”??? Right now the jury is still out as I work through the latest in a string of transitions for our life in Olympia, 
WA. What am I talking about? Actually, I’m talking about “punching a clock face on faith…” meh. Or, something like that… All kidding aside, I started a new job today. Laurie started hers last week. With both of us in our (whispers…) “forties,” it feels a little odd starting over again. I think it was especially odd feeling for me when I was clearly one of the oldest people in the room; there was definitely a generational divide. Much to my joy, there didn’t seem to be any notice of this from the other “newbies” in my training class.
What does this have to do with faith? Everything… I think. Can I take a minute to explain? Okay, bear with me a minute.
Me = first day at work. I’m a growing (ever so gracefully) older man entering a young-adult-entry-level customer service job. My first inclination is to say; “Self, what in the world are you doing here?” I look around and begin to feel scared and/or sorry for myself. I begin to fantasize about doing anything but what I’m doing at the moment. I start to project forward in time to when I am no longer doing the work I’m doing, but something more gratifying and satisfying. Then I remember why I am where I am… Faith. Faith brought me to where I am. Following Jesus brought me to Olympia. Part of Olympia is my willingness to say “yes” to God and trust His leading and His provision. Part of His provision is through my new employer. My obedience to God translates to my becoming a blessing to my employer; all of the sudden the paradigm of my predicament flip-flops and turns from destination depression to divine direction. And that’s how it happens; being led by the Spirit.
It is all too easy to follow the path of self. We do it all the time; protecting self, defending self, boasting self, exalting self, feeding self…self, self, self. However, the journey of following Jesus is about self denial and that presupposes that one scenario will exclude the other. Self cannot follow Jesus; He said so (Luke 14:25-27 and Matthew 16:24). So anyway, pushing self aside and listening instead to the Spirit we find our way to purpose and living in harmony with God. We find our way to unity with the Spirit and advancement of God’s Kingdom and His divine Purpose. And, this is where my day ended… Joyfully exuberant that God would see me feeling as though I were “punched in the face” and reminding me that I was practicing a punch in my faith. So, when I “punch my clock” each morning at my God given new job… I’ll delightfully remember that He brought me to where I am and He’ll teach me, guide me, and use me in the purposes of His choosing all for His glory. I’ll remember to leave self at home.
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Jeffrey thank you for this candid sharing of your heart. Dean and I were praying for you as you stepped into your yesterday’s job experience. I will have Dean read this when he gets home from work today as he (we) would have shared many of these same expressed feelings you recount here when we left everything in our 40′s…. a well paying job and benefits, our church family, intimacy with friends and family, an entire life since birth of all that we had ever known) behind to follow Jesus and moved to Potter County to start again….. What we didn’t leave behind was our love for our Lord and the realization that trusting him was far better than trusting ourselves. And in various degrees we have been tested in the “land of trusting and denying self” every inch of the way since….a good thing from the giver of all good things!
As Dean struggled to make sense of lying flat on his back shortly after our arrival with serious skin issus which left him unable to do anything including the pursuing of a job I know that he would describe this window of the journey felt like a “punch in the face.” The physicians told us to prepare for disability for Dean. God had something else entirely in mind! The both of us have learned so much living here in the mountains about learning how to trust in ways we never would have learned in Lancaster in our self sufficiency. It has resulted in, as you have creatively wordsmithed, a “punch in the faith” for our own spiritual journey and discipline.
And God has so much more to show us we believe…..
The Lord of our lives is presently speaking through David Platt’s book, Radical (Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream) which Dean and I are turning the last pages in. As I have read aloud each night for a week and half or more we are intentionally choosing to examine and revaluate again in our lives in our 50′s in light of what God may want to change/adjust in our lives to free us up even more to be his vessels.
As I read your posting this morning the 12 year old feelings that I wrestled with upon first moving here came all rushing back to me and I found myself entering into prayer for you today acutely empathetic to the place you now find yourself. Our life circumstances may be a bit different however the realization and reconciliation of what it means to die daily to self wherever we find ourselves is a work only the Spirit of God can reconcile in and through us. Praising God that the JOY of the Lord was yours yesterday! What a gift the Holy Spirit of God is to each of us and the transformational shifts he can make in our minds and hearts in the course of a day!
Yes Jeffrey you have expressed it beautifully…..
“all of the sudden the paradigm of my predicament flip-flops and turns from destination depression to divine direction. And that’s how it happens; being led by the Spirit.”
And that’s how it happens…..
Living in community with you as close as the heart….
Bethly for Dean as well.