SECOND GUESSING

 I'm writing for Five Minute Friday and this week's prompt word is SECOND. 

When you make a tough decision that takes you into difficult territory and leaves you facing some daily struggles, you often second guess that decision.

Sometimes, when you're overwhelmed by the burdens you're carrying, or the possibility of failure, or fear of the future, or the aloneness of it, you second guess your choices, and His call to make that decision. 

When the waves threaten to take you under, you start to ask yourself, 'Why did you get out of the boat?  Did He really call you out?  Are you sure you heard right?  Would have been more comfortable and sensible to stay put.'

We don't always see the internal struggles of the biblical characters once they'd made the choice to obey His leading. 

Often that obedience looked foolish, unwise, unsafe and counter cultural. There was often some serious inconvenience and even life-threatening moments.  

Did they second guess their decision?   Who wouldn't?

But second guessing and quitting are not the same thing.  

When the day to day struggles ramp up, and going back to Egypt seems sensible, what do you do?

What did the people of Israel do?   They whinged and blamed and wanted to quit.  

What did Moses and Joshua do?  They got before the Lord and waited on Him till they got an answer on how to move forward again.  And then they followed His leading.  

I have to do the same.  

When I am second guessing my decision to get out of the boat and walk on water with Him, I have to reach out for that righteous right hand to steady me.  

Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Isa 41:10

And I have to ask for and believe and speak out His perspective to recalibrate my thinking.

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,

Like a weaned child with his mother;

Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord

From this time forth and forever.  Ps 131:2,3

For You have delivered my soul from death.

Have You not kept my feet from falling,

That I may walk before God

In the light of the living?   Ps 56:13

Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.    For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”. Matthew 11:28-30

Doing those two things allows me to stand again.  

Once I get that, I start to second guess the doubts, the lies, the fear, the negative expectations, the emotional rollercoaster, the burdens that threaten to drown me.  

I had to do that this last week.   

I had to get His perspective, with the help of my pastor, on a burden that regularly feels unfair and overwhelming - single parenting a teenager and a tweenager.   

And He showed up, as He does when we just stop the second guessing long enough to get quiet and lean in and listen.  

Like He did with Peter,  He showed up as the great I AM, with that powerful right hand - present, powerful, full of grace and truth.  

More on how He did that in another post.  

Each time you go under those waves and actually reach out for that hand, you come up stronger, wiser, more in tune with Him, more aware of His greatness.  

Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”.  Mark 4:41

So let go my soul and trust in Him

The waves and wind still know His name

The waves and wind still know His name

And it is well

With my soul (sing it out)

It is well

With my soul

It is well

With my soul

It is well, it is well with my soul