“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26 AMP

Today is the beginning of my last four days in my current job. I have been very blessed by the opportunity to work with the people I have, both co-workers and patients. I’ve met so many beautiful souls, and I’ve been incredibly blessed by all of them. While I am ready to move forward, I will frequently look back on the experience with a deep fondness. The truth of the matter is that nothing is perfect…no job, no vacation, no person…nothing. Perfection is something we cannot achieve in these bodies on this planet.

In many ways, getting through life is like maneuvering through a hostile obstacle course. One thing I learned about obstacle courses in the military is that they were not to be traversed alone. They were always tackled in teams. The focus was never to be on getting yourself through the course, but on getting your whole team through. We spend a lot of time in life focused on ourselves and on our own issues, but that is not how we are meant to go through the obstacle course of life. In our military obstacle courses, the Drill Sergeants were always there on the sidelines offering us guidance on how to get over the hurdle in front of us. They didn’t stand there shouting instructions on an obstacle three stops ahead, but instead kept our focus on the one we were already facing. After all, if we didn’t get over the current hump, the one down the line would never be faced, so what would be the point of knowing how to face it?

As I said, each obstacle was much more effectively overcome if we worked in teams because we were able to help push or pull each other up and over challenging walls, cheer each other on as we skirted our way across a high board, and encourage each other as we had to tackle moving across a dauntingly high wire. While one person may be skilled at moving across the wire, another may be more skilled at skirting the high boards safely. By working as a team, we brought all of our strengths and weaknesses to the table, each morphing from an incomplete solitary soldier, into one part of a much more complete entity.

This is what God expects of us in life. We are to use our strengths to help others over obstacles we’ve already faced or have God-given gifts to understand. By the same token, in our areas of weakness, we need to ask God to bring us those who are able to supplement our lack of knowledge with their experience and support. We are moving through this crazy obstacle course, and it is vital that we remember God is always there at the sidelines offering us what we need to get over the obstacle in front of us. Sometimes that guidance will be geared towards a needed solitary action, but other times it will be a direction towards a brother or sister in Christ who has been prepared to offer whatever assistance is needed for that specific situation.

I heard something recently that really stood out to me…the basic gist was that our imperfections stand like mountains in the face of God’s love and power, allowing His grace and mercy to shine on us and the resulting shadows cast by our imperfections acting as highlights for His true majesty. How vital is it that we keep our faces towards His light, and NOT focused on our own shadows? In my mind, it is one of the most important things we must do. We have been born perfectly imperfect, and God had a design for our lives long before we ever arrived here to start living them. He’s known every decision we would make before we were ever faced with the need to make them, and thus already planned on how to best utilize those decisions.

Yes, we have free will, and each decision we make is our own. He is not up there making them for us or trying to force us to go this way or that. However, He is always prepared to help us make the decision that will serve us best, as long as we ask Him for that guidance. Even when we choose to decide without His input, He’s prepared to help us deal with the fallout of that path, as well. We often make the mistake of believing God will abandon us if we don’t choose what he wants us to choose. He will never abandon us. NEVER. What I have learned is that my life always works out, and I am able to get through whatever comes my way, even when I mess up. It is always much easier when I seek His direction first, then do my best to hear it AND follow it. He knows I’m imperfect, but that never keeps Him from loving me perfectly.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer.” Psalms 19:14 AMP