I thought about this as I was recently driving back to Charlottesville through a wicked storm in which heavy rain caused my van to hydroplane and a precipitously close lightning strike caused my heart to nearly skip a beat.
When I discovered that the tornado warnings did not impact the counties through which I was traveling, I decided to keep going – albeit at a greatly modified speed. When a dear friend expressed gratitude for my safe arrival “through the storms,” I reflected upon this in a metaphorical sense.
How often, in fact, are we paralyzed by the future, the big picture, the uncertainty of it all – in the midst of life’s storms and, most especially, in the ensuing calm? I wanted to share with you some insights which have provided comfort for me.
As you may or may not know, I have a proclivity for listening to provocative commencement addresses. My niece, Molly, recently shared with me a speaker at the University of Western Australia who used the term “micro-ambition.”
What a fabulous idea.
I don’t consider myself a terribly ambitious person, yet the aforementioned term is very much in keeping with my imperfect attempt to live life as a series of “crucial, precious and unrepeatable moments” as writer Frederick Buechner describes it.
In the business development class I am currently taking, we were asked to set goals for the next 10 days. I responded with, “OK, I can DO that!”
Had we been asked to set them for the next 10 years, I don’t think I would have been quite as enthusiastic.
Francis Chan, author of a book I am reading entitled Forgotten God writes, “It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction…It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It’s safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day.”
Last week I heard a replay of a gripping interview on NPR with Maurice Sendak, author of one of my favorite books, Where the Wild Things Are. At 83 and choked with tears, he imparted this simple wisdom in conclusion, with pregnant pauses between each identical phrase: “Live your life . . . live your life . . . live your life.”
I considered what it would be like to live your life in 10 minute increments. Not that we shouldn’t set goals for the next 10 days – or 10 years – for that matter, but as we all have likely experienced, “the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.”
Well, I have concluded that striving to be “micro-ambitious,” while maintaining an attitude of ultimate surrender, is rather appealing – to walk down the aisle every day – baby step by baby step – placing my future on the altar, allowing God to be the architect of “my” plans.
Drawing upon Oswald Chambers, my goal is to become all that I have not yet been which, I believe, only God can see. And, friends, the only way out seems to be through . . . cultivating this ability by relying on His grace alone.
Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well, it is. Except maybe for that first step.
Go on. Take it.
– Caroline Watkins