by Susan Litwiller, Ed.S., MBA
It is possible that we live our lives believing the message that we need to strategize our future. A message that there should be a plan, vision, mission, or otherwise internally manufactured step-by-step easy to follow a program that magically delivers us to the doorstep of success. Rather than strategize our future, God calls us to discover it. He has prepared works before we were born (Eph 1:4-5). We need to pray prayers that bind our feet to the path He has prepared. We need our hearts to be willing to listen and follow.
As Christians, we have read the back of the book. We know that the end result of our lives is to give God glory. We know we are to love God and love others. I fear we have been trying to live the concept of ‘come ye’. When we think all of our purposes and plans are simply coming to us rather than earnestly pursuing our calling. That somehow our purpose will mysteriously appear if we sit in prayer long enough. However, the scriptures tell us to ‘go ye’. For it is action that brings clarity.
I pose this question: What if the problems we think we need to remove are actually the platform for promotion? Ponder that. We typically don’t plan for problems. Who, in January of 2020, put in their strategic plan a pandemic shut down in March? We know the Lord knew about it, but who was actually walking on the path and heard the still small voice to prepare for calamity? There were a handful of people who were able to pivot quickly while the rest of the world froze.
We all have a call on our lives and a specific work to do. We glorify God by “finishing the work” He called us to do. (John 17:2) The level of complexity in the problem that we solve shapes the degree of glory we demonstrate. Consider that Joseph, David, and Daniel all entered their circle of greatest influence when they solved the greatest problem in the sphere they were called to occupy. It is that way for us as well. We need to walk our path and not that of another’s.
The key to everything is YOUR ASSIGNMENT. Not someone else’s, yours. Your assignment is an invitation to push your capacity to a new peak. Your assignment is a problem waiting for you to show up to solve it.
Fear by its very nature will paralyze us and cause us to hesitate and hold out at our present stance. However, when we stop going up we also stop growing up to full stature. In fact, the root meaning of the word “mediocre” is “halfway up” the mountain.
We can all do better, no matter what level of success we have achieved because we have Divine favor that enables us to accomplish more with less. This is called having “spiritual force multipliers.” We don’t build a brilliant future by fixing our faults, but by investing time, money, and training in the area of our gifts. This is where we excel, and as believers, it’s the place of our assignment where the excellent spirit operates in and through us.
As we live as reflectors of the excellent spirit, our clients will align into their assignments as well.
Susan Litwiller, Ed.S, MBA is a Certified Master NeuroCoach, Strengths Champion Coach, and a John Maxwell Team Training Coach. She is the Director of Education for CCNI and facilitates our Evening Women in Coaching Community group which meets on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 8pm EDT. She can be reached at direducation@christiancoaches.com
