Background Passages: Acts16:6-10; Isaiah 55:8-9; Habakkuk 2:3, and Proverbs 16:9
As my wife and I sat in our seats at Houston’s Hobby Center, my old, addled mind struggled to keep up with the fast-paced lyrics of Hamilton: An American Musical. Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton was a mesmerizing combination of rap, R & B, pop and even a few more traditional show tunes as it told the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton.
Miranda filled the musical with memorable songs and dialogue. I found it impossible not to walk away from the show without remembering Aaron Burr’s desire to be “in the room where it happens” or to hear Burr’s advice to Hamilton to “Talk less. Smile more.”
As I thought about the events of this week, one scene from Hamilton kept resurfacing. Hamilton, as an aide to General George Washington, wanted desperately to get into the fight. To command on the battlefield, even if it meant becoming a martyr to freedom. Washington, though needed Hamilton’s ability to write to convince both the public and a reluctant Congress to stay together during the difficult times of war.
After one particularly vociferous outburst, Washington dismissed Hamilton with this. “Dying is easy. Living is harder.”
In a week when things didn’t quite turn out the way I had hoped, I found God reminding me, “Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.”
You see, we can work really hard deciding what God’s will is for our lives in every situation. We can try to make God’s will a pre-determined certainty in both place and time…in other words, to inflict our will on God by doing what we think we’re supposed to do without listening. “Talk less. Smile more.” But, if we want to be “in the room where it happens,” we must wait on God’s perfect will. God’s perfect timing.
Doing is easy. Trusting is much, much harder.
Paul discovered this on his second missionary journey. Paul tells us in his testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26 that he was a Pharisee among the Pharisees. He lived his life by the rules. I suspect spontaneity never found its way into Paul’s vocabulary. I picture him as a man who had his life mapped out in great detail. Every jot and tittle.
His blinding conversion experience on his way to Damascus had to be disorienting for a while. He spent several years learning a new reality about life in Christ before setting out with a mission to share Christ to all he encountered. I still suspect Paul planned out his missionary journeys in intricate detail. Knowing where he was going. How long he intended to stay. What he was going to say.
On his second missionary journey, Paul spent productive time in southern Galatia in the cities of Lystra and Iconium where the people “spoke well of him.”
“Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.” (Acts 16:6-8)
While it’s impossible to know for sure, Paul had planned to head west from Galatia through the southern region of the province of Asia, possibly toward Ephesus. God had other plans and kept him from going where he planned.
Paul turned north at Pisidian Antioch with new plans to journey into Bithynia (toward modern day Istanbul). When he reached the border of Bithynia, the Holy Spirit again closed the door, pointing Paul back to the west to the port city of Troas, the gateway to Macedonia.
After a vision calling him to Macedonia, Paul boarded a boat and found his way to Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, eventually circling back to Ephesus. We know of those cities because of the letters he wrote them. I’m grateful that Paul listened to God’s spirit and followed where it led him.
Paul could have pushed through that tug of the spirit and continued the way he planned. Who knows? Paul’s plan might have taken him to Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica and Philippi in reverse order and a slightly different time frame. God may have known that if Paul went to the places God wanted him to go, but in a different order and a different time, the people would not have been ready to hear his message.
Paul might have done nothing differently during his time in those places, but because he arrived before God had prepared the way, his message might have fallen on deaf ears.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
I serve on the Pastor Search Team for our church with seven other amazing men and women. We’ve tried over the past eight months to discover the one God has called to be our next pastor. After months of listening to sermons, conducting interviews and prayerful consideration, we felt a strong pull toward one individual. We had done the work. We felt the connection. We felt we were where God wanted us to be.
As we stood poised for the next step, the pastor removed his name from consideration. Too many things still to be done in his current church. I believe he was genuinely drawn to our church. I believe his heart was torn. I think he knew he could come and be content in that decision, but now was not God’s time.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
Though disappointed, our Pastor Search Team mourned for a few moments knowing how much work had led to that point. We’ve seen over the last months how God opens and closes doors to guide our path. From this side of those doors looking back, we are grateful for his work in our lives and in our process. We learn new lessons each day about trusting where he leads.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
This passage teaches valuable faith lessons. Lessons I need to hear from time to time, especially when I think I’m doing what God wants me to do.
God knows what he’s doing, even if I don’t. Isaiah 55:8-9 remind us,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I may think I know better than God what is best for my life or my circumstance. I really don’t. He wants what is best for me and I will do better when I put my faith in God’s plan. That requires me to be flexible and adaptable to God’s leading. To pray for discernment and clarity in my approach to all things. And, most importantly, it requires me to submit to God’s agenda and to God’s timing.
I can push myself as hard as I want to, but if I’m heading in the wrong direction, I won’t accomplish nearly all that God had planned for me.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
None of that means I should sit back and do nothing until God’s voice is clearly heard. I don’t know about you, but God’s voice is seldom clearly heard. I find, for me, his voice is usually that loud slamming of the door that closes out the option I was intent to pursue.
I know God wants us to plan our lives. We make our plans under the authority and guidance of God’s spirit. God’s ways are not my ways. (Thank the Lord.) Wise King Solomon wrote in Proverbs,
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
Nineteenth century theologian Charles Bridges’ commentary on Proverbs says it clearly. “Inscrutable indeed is the mystery, how he (God) accomplished his fixed purposes by free-willed agents. Man proposes, God disposes. Man devises and the Lord directs.”
So, we plan the courses of our lives and our decisions subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Willing to bypass Bithynia if God calls us elsewhere. It is a matter of trust.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
Finally, the passage reminds me that God’s plans are always greater than my own. This is the attitude of our Pastor Search Team. As one door closes, we know God will open another to even greater possibilities. Our task is to keep doing the work and listening to his voice.
Paul had the door to Bithynia slammed in his face, he didn’t fret or fear. He listened.
“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately he sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:9-10)
The rest, as they say, is history. Jonah had a call to go to Nineveh. Instead, he initially boarded a ship and headed in the opposite direction. Paul had a vision and went where God called him. See, the choice is ours when God closes a door. We can get frustrated. We can tell God he doesn’t know what he’s doing. We can try to do things our way.
When we push back on God, we usually spend a little time in the belly of a big fish, ready to walk the direction God wanted us to go in the first place only after we’ve been vomited up on the beach. Trust allows us to head to the nearest harbor and find our boat to Macedonia.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.
The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk grew bewildered by the rise of evil in the world and the spiritual decline of God’s people. He preached a message of repentance, and no one seemed to hear. He did everything he felt God called him to do and nothing changed. He prayed for God’s help. Begged the Lord to intervene and set things right. It was as if God didn’t hear or didn’t care.
It got to the point that Habakkuk said, “it was too painful for him, until he went into the sanctuary of the Lord.” The words he heard from the Lord did not announce the coming changes. He did not hear God tell him not to worry because judgment was coming. Rather, he heard God tell him to keep doing what he was doing and have faith.
“For the revelation (of God) awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3)
There’s the final key, I think. God moves in his time. When it’s time to call a new pastor, we’ll find him. When it’s time to do the thing you planned, the door will open at a time appointed by God. When you hear his voice to move in a certain direction, it will always be the right move. Even when it seems the answer is not forthcoming, wait for it for it will certainly come.
Doing is easy. Trusting is harder.