In the Lion's Den Again

 

How many times have you been in a situation where you felt that you were surely going to fail? Perhaps you had no knowledge, didn’t get training and/or didn’t have the tools that you needed to do the job efficiently. At my age, it has been quite a few. Perhaps that is why I am diligent about taking notes and creating instructions. It has been a necessity in life.

I remember, years ago, I took a contract position with a hospital in Phoenix. It was a training position. I am not a doctor, nor have I played one on TV. 😊 In summary, the job was to train doctor’s and nurses how to use a software system while they were performing their jobs, including surgery.

Well, long story short, they had a packet 4 inches thick for us to learn in just two weeks in a classroom with nurses and medical technicians. Oh, I forgot to mention that our trainer quit in the first week. They had not planned for that. There was no one else and none of us knew what to do. You could feel a kind of division in the room initially. One tech was not shy about voicing why they would pick non-medical personnel to train others on medical software. This immediately worked on my insecurities, and I asked myself what in the world I was doing there. But I knew why. I loved training and I needed the job. I always taught my kids never quit a job unless you have another one.

After a week of spinning our wheels, trying to learn the material separately, no leadership and some obvious attempts at taking the wheel, we started working together. I began asking the medical personnel about things in the material that were medically related, and they began asking us about aspects of the software. Each learned the other’s strengths and weaknesses and we helped each other become better. Together, and without a trainer, we improvised and worked with what we had to become a powerhouse training group. I even had to overcome my weakness of going into the operating rooms and seeing blood in order to show the doctor how to administer blood to the patient in critical situations. When lives are on the line, you tend not to worry about anything else. I learned so much respect and appreciation for those who work in the medical field. They truly are warriors on the battlefield of life. I could NOT have done the job without letting go of my pride, insecurities, fears and humbling myself to acquiesce to others. Some of us are still friends to this day.

Like Daniel in the Lion’s den, we didn’t have any worldly weapons. We had the tools that God gave us to do the job.

2 Cor 12:8-10: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Or maybe, in the middle of the chaos of your work, when you think you won’t possibly get it all done, someone needs you right now for something and you must stop to handle it. You feel overwhelmed, and maybe a little frustrated at the timing of it all. Someone else’s needs always seem to be more important than what you are doing.

I have felt that way so many times in life. And I must admit that there were times that I know that my stress showed through. I have had deadlines and paperwork and tried so hard to fit what I needed to do in a neat little time slot with no wiggle room because I just couldn’t afford the time to waste. I am a bit of a control freak and am self-motivated. I am the one that can work from home with no supervision and get the job done and take on extra if need be. But in that realm of finances and must do’s, I tended not to leave a lot of wiggle room. People were the distraction, not the purpose.

Life, and this ministry, have taught me so very much about wiggle room. I remember when I first started working here, I was too busy learning and doing the finance job to stop. There would be baptisms and special events but I would assume that I was to stay at my task. They would always tell me to join with everyone else because fellowship is more important. We are about the students and work can wait. It took a while to adjust to that. I always felt that I had to confirm it each time. I had to learn to relax my worldly standards. And the one thing I have learned best is that I must always, and I do mean always, stop in my tracks to love on those around me no matter what.

Phil 2:1-11: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ...”

I can tell you that in those chaotic moments, when nothing seems to go right, abrasive people seem to test you, your work isn’t getting done, students are in crisis, and you don’t have the tools that you think that you need… God is working.

My main regret in life is in the way that I have failed others, not in what I didn’t get done. I know what it feels like to be rejected and cast aside. I know that every one of you knows exactly how that feels. The last thing that I want is to ever hurt someone like that.

The students are why we are here! I cannot tell you how many times… yes, I can, EVERY time that someone needed me and I stopped to love them, it was worth every minute. I will go one further and say that I even got done what I was supposed to get done without much stress because God showed ME that He was working through me to help others.

But more than THAT, He is working in me too. I NEED that time with students and staff just as much as they do because it ignites my Light and refuels my soul to the fullest. God works in us and blesses us when we love others before ourselves. ALWAYS.

I know there were even times when I was not where I wanted to be. I grew anxious and grumbled about that as we tend to do. In all my wriggling to get free of it, I discovered that I wasn’t there as a punishment, but I was there because there was an underlying reason why He put me where I was. Either to stretch me, to help others or to protect me. But trust me… NO, trust HIM, there is a reason.

Acts 20:35: “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

My point is, when all chaos hits the fan, it isn’t that you can’t work through it. God gave you the tools for that. He is asking you to trust Him in those moments and continue to learn and grow where you are planted. There is something in that moment of time that He is showing you. When you stop trying to wriggle free and figure out how to work through it, He can bless you where you are.

But most important than anything else, when people need you, STOP and LOVE on them! That is ultimately why we are here on this earth, in this ministry and as a Christian.

1 Pet 4:10-11: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”