Inner Strength

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! After a week of interviews and travels, I realized that I was exhausted and simply needed to rest. Note that I use “exhausted” in its most positive sense: on the whole, the week was quite good, and there were many valuable life lessons to be learned.

Again, I returned to the Monterey area for another set of onsite interviews. While the day was long (8:30am – 5:30pm), it was one of the most peaceful and enjoyable interview experiences I’ve ever had. I felt great peace and contentment throughout the day.

I will be speaking to the hiring manager in a few minutes about my candidacy. I have a good feeling about this, and will be sure to keep you all posted. Many thanks to those of you who have been praying for me!

Accordingly, I was encouraged by this excerpt from Joel 2:11b. It’s a little slip of Scripture that might easily be missed, but the Holy Spirit brought it to my attention this morning (I was deciding between several verses for today’s post). As always, it is critical to review a Bible verse in context, so I encourage you to read the first couple of chapters of Joel if you can. Still, I believe that there is an important life principle for us to discern here.

There is s blessing that attends obedience. While life may not always be easy, the Lord does equip us with the strength needed to do that which He calls us to do. Further, we cannot act unless we understand what we are being asked to do, and we are unable to glean these precious insights unless we spend time seeking the mind of the Lord. Finally, we are unable to seek the Lord’s guidance on a matter unless we are still enough to discern His still, small voice in our noisy world of chaos and disorder.

I believe this is why God blessed me with rest these two few days. Truly, I believe that one of the most God-honoring things we can do is to rest and take a nap. In these times of stillness and rest, I find that I gain a new perspective on whatever situation I am facing. Recently, one of the important realities that I encountered was this:

I believe the Lord is calling me to live somewhere else. I believe that He has closed every other door in the area where I currently live because I need to live in a more peaceful place for a season. During this time, I trust that the Lord will do a deeper level of healing in my heart and mind, and I will benefit substantially greatly from the experience.

So that is what I am preparing to do. I had previously been exploring other areas, but I saw little movement there. Finally, it was as if the Lord asked me directly: “Do you really want to live there?” After some heartfelt consideration, I realized, no, I don’t want to live in those other places.

The next question was similar: “Where do you want to live?” Someplace peaceful and still was my reply: Not too hot, too grey, or too far, and preferably close to the water. Well, that ruled out several job opportunities I had been considering already.

It was only when I spent some time on the Central Coast of California that I realized that I could really see myself living there. So I’m trusting God to work out the details according to His timing, and to also provide whatever resources are needed to facilitate this relocation. Either way, He will give me the strength needed for this journey, as the Lord always equips those He calls (rather than calling those who already seem to be equipped). So we shall see what happens.

Best wishes to each of you for a wonderful rest of your week. 🙏🏾