In God I Trust?

On Tuesday night of this week, I went to bed sometime around 10 and found myself running through a checklist of things I needed to have ready for our Truth At Work roundtable meeting (a monthly meeting of Christian leaders which helps them to grow their organizations in a God-honoring way while at the same time helping them to grow personally and spiritually). Normally, I wouldn’t be doing this but on Wednesday we were starting our 3rd group in NW Ohio and things run a little differently in our kickoff meetings. Plus, I wanted everything to go great for our new members.

While running through my inventory of tasks, I realized that I had forgotten to check to see if our host site had wireless internet access which we would need in this meeting. I then thought of a couple of other minor things I had forgotten. I began to worry and be anxious about this. I was in “I hope things work out OK” mode. As a result, though I knew that God is in control, I struggled to get to sleep. I must not have truly trusted Him to take care of things.

God had a message for me yesterday morning when I woke up. I was greeted to a devotional from my friend, Os Hillman, which had this to say:

Seeing God's Power in the Clothing Industry

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 by Os Hillman

Wednesday, May 20 2009

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor 2:3-5).

I learned a principle years ago of withholding our natural gifting to insure that God is in whatever we are doing.

Crystal is a businesswoman involved in the manufacture of designer clothing. Her designs are known for their elaborate detail and accessories sewn into the clothing. She had a contract with a major retail chain that agreed to carry her clothing. A call came from the retailer requesting that four designs be sent to them for consideration for the next season's clothing line. She had known that meeting this particular deadline was going to be very difficult due to other circumstances that were going on in her life.

Finally the deadline came and she had not completed the two of the pieces of clothing she wanted them to consider. The elaborate detail and finish work she was known for had not been completed on two of the four pieces they were asking for. She called the retailer and said she had two pieces ready to ship but the other two still needed to be completed. The retailer argued with her and said, "Send the others to us anyway."

Crystal is a perfectionist and the idea of sending her designs to the retailer without the finished detail, creativity, and quality made her very uncomfortable. Then, she recalled my teaching on this principle. She decided to do something in total opposition to her natural inclinations. She sent the two pieces of clothing to the retailer along with the other two "finished" pieces. To her shock and amazement the retailer chose the two pieces of clothing that had not been "finished" and declined the other two.

Crystal realized that God was demonstrating His power through this principle of withholding her natural gifting to show her that it was by His hand that she was being successful in her business. This did not take away her need to be creative or skillful, but there was now a new understanding to move in a dimension that placed greater dependence upon obedience rather than just her natural skill.

On the surface, this might not seem like it relates to my situation, but I know that God was using this to speak to me. It was if He was saying, “Jim, when are you going to learn that you can totally trust in Me? When are you going to get that no matter what you do, you can’t control this stuff? When will you understand that worrying won’t do anything but cause you grief?”

I love when God does stuff like this. I am not where I need to be, but I’m so glad I’m not where I used to be!