A Leap of Faith

2 Corinthians 5:7:
7For we walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance.

I remember well, it was 12 years ago. I worked for an institute of higher learning here in Georgia. I had what most would consider a good job, and good pay. In fact, I had begun working only 4 days per week - 32 hours. I loved having the three day weekends, and some money to spend during them. However, it was also about this time I began feeling a bit restless on the inside. I could not quite put my finger on it, but I did know it was job related. I could not determine whether or not I was tired of what I was doing, or tired of where I was doing it. I'd been employed at this university for about 9 years, and really had no complaints. Either way, I was unsettled enough that I began to ask myself some serious questions, and as a Christian, I began to pray about making a change. I did so for several months, but - to no avail. It seems like I could not come up with an answer that made that unsettled feeling go away. I did not feel that I had a clear stay, go, change - from the Lord. I desired His will for my life, and so was determined to wait for a definitive answer from Him. Well, I can't say that I ever felt like I heard from Him. The truth; was that I was looking for the entire picture to be drawn out in front of me, instead of being able to focus on just the "next step". Is this familiar to anyone else that might be reading this????

I decided to do the following, to choose one of the options I had on my heart, which was to leave my employment, and start my own business - but...I prayed and allowed the Lord full permission to turn me around at any moment. Guess what, He never did. And now, 12 years later, I can say it was the best move I ever made. Why - well there are several reasons, but first let me go on with the story a bit.

While I am still an entrepreneur, I do not still operate the very first business I started. It failed. In fact I am now on my 3rd and 4th businesses simultaneously. My second business, a Professional Development Training Company, fared well for about 4 years, however, the economy went into a dive after the September 11th event in New York, and the need for corporate trainers went along with it. In 2004, I actually returned to the same university I had left, and am currently employed there now. Some would say, this sounds like I made a bad move, and then ended up right back where I started. And you know, this is what the Devil wanted me to believe as well. However, he is a liar, and in fact, here is the Blessing in it all.

God was preparing me for leadership. For me, that preparation began with leading my own company and basically myself, because it was only me - I was self-employed. I had to learn how to manage my own time and tasks well - and especially, my finances. At the height of my time with my second business, I employed 12 other contract trainers. What an experience that was. I think my greatest hurdle here was learning to trust myself to choose someone to go out somewhere and represent me well. You see, I had also learned that self-employment was not what I desired, but business ownership. Now that comes along with the capacity to reproduce myself and my services; with confidence. I also had my first experience of having an employee not do such a great job for a customer, and having to deal with that aftermath. While it was one of the things that I feared the most, in the end..it was not half as bad as I had imagined it might be.

Lastly, I will say, that even upon returning to the university - while many things there were exactly the same as when I left, one thing was certainly different. ME. I had changed and grown so much. I had learned to live when finances were flowing, and when they were very slow coming in. I had learned not only to take full responsibility for myself and my actions, but to do so for other persons who I was accountable for because they were a part of my staff or of my team. I had learned to lead with Authority and Responsibility. I now experienced things at the university differently, and began to seek out leadership opportunities in that environment, when I had not in the past, and in the mean time, my husband and I started a photography business which is now in its 10th year of existence and steady growing. Another invaluable lesson, Stop treating your failures, as if they mean the end of EVERYTHING!

I'm saying all of this not to brag or promote my accomplishments in any way, but to bring out the fact that there are truly times in our life where we have to take a Leap of Faith. We have a decision to make, something weighing very heavy on our hearts or minds, and for the life of us, we cannot seem to come up with the answer. Yes, at times, it is meant for us to stand still. However, there are just as many times when God is asking if we Trust Him, even when we can't Trace Him even when we can't see the entire picture. Have we matured enough to trust the God in us...where we can make a difficult decision, knowing that if it was not the best decision, because we sought God, and searched His word...that He can and will fix for us what might need fixing on the back side. He does catch us when we fall, and when we fail! His word is really true; He can turn what may have been meant for our bad, into something that works out for our good.

This is also important because there are times when we have to make a decision on a "moment's notice" when we may not have 3 or 4 weeks, or even 3 or 4 hours to stop, pray, or seek counsel. We need to have a relationship with God, like the prophets of old, one where over time we have sought God for Wisdom, He has granted it, and we can seek Him on a moment's notice if need be - and then have the Faith to know that He will walk with us, that He never leaves us, nor will ever forsake us.

Fear, anxiety, insecurity, and a whole host of other things can cause us to exist in a place of indecisiveness, and therefore procrastinate on decisions we need to make and tasks that we need to take care of. Let's bring that to an end today. Lets practice Wisdom; here is my recipe "Got a decision to make? 1st - PRAY and ask God to guide you to His will. 2nd - Write down your Goal, and Do your RESEARCH. The type of research required, depends on the type of decision you have to make. 3rd - take what you have found back before the Lord in Prayer." And lets walk by Faith and not just by sight. He may not give us the whole picture, but He will give us Peace with making the very next step.

Copyright 2011 - Victoria L. Burse
Victoria's latest book "Sabbath Songs" Click Here to purchase your copy today!