This belief does not necessarily always translate into my own diligent efforts and practices, but that doesn’t diminish its truth. Doing what we should, when we should do it, whether we feel like it or not is doubtlessly a missing ingredient in such a distracted society as ours where technology, hobbies, and a host of other stimuli have short-circuited our basic ability to focus on doing what is at hand.

Allow me to paint good advice in colloquial terms: “if you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one.”

I can’t help but consider the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise was able to realize success because of his constant focus and diligent discipline in moving toward what he wanted. The hare, who probably no less wanted to win the race, just couldn’t maintain the focus and diligence required to meet his goal.

Here we learn an important lesson: success is more than just want to, it’s consistent focused effort toward a worthwhile goal. Constant, consistent plodding brings success.

I have learned that I can do anything I want; I just can’t do everything I want. Focus requires that I make the sacrifice of good things, so that I can gain the great things.

Thoreau, sensing a similar truth, once wrote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”

This I believe.

Proverbs 16:3 – Commit your work to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

Obviously, we all have a work to do. Some wish they could just find any work to do. We are reminded in scripture that we are God’s workmanship created to do good works, but often there is a struggle in determining exactly what that work is for us to do. For example, I often find myself  jumping from one project and career plan to the next – having difficulty focusing on exactly what it is I am supposed to do. One day, it’s career A and then it’s career B – often being influenced by enticements of a bigger salary or better advancement. But how do we find our work we are to do?

These verses are an encouragement to me when I am feeling stuck or at least halted in my career progress, and they have helped me  realize a few things.

A)  Despite the great advantage of setting clear goals and plans, I am not to focus so much on the specific plan – but rather on the Lord himself. Knowing him and rejoicing myself in him will actually bring about clarity to this temporal life – Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things shall be added. Or as Proverbs 90:17 above infers, as the beauty of the Lord rests upon us, the work for our hands to do becomes increasingly clear and obvious. Spending time with the Lord, allowing his presence to rest upon us, is as important to finding the right work as career inventories, goal-setting, networking, in fact, it’s more important – it’s the only way our work will be established. So, are we building a better resume or relationship?

B) Interestingly enough, it seems the second verse, Proverbs 16,  at first- by standards of  natural wisdom – has the whole career planning and advancement out of order. Natural wisdom tells us to first clarify the values; next, set the vision; thirdly, develop the mission; finally, prioritize the task (i.e. plan the work  and then work the plan). Now, I believe in a plan, but notice the plan doesn’t come first – Committing ourselves and our work, whatever it may be presently, fully to the Lord comes first, and then the thoughts or exact plans and wisdom will be established and clarified.

All that to say this, instead of more career planning – I’ve learned I need to do more God searching; allowing his beauty to rest upon me, becoming more dedicated before becoming more directed.

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Father of all mercies, I thine unworthy servant do give Thee most humble thanks, for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to me. I bless Thee for my creation, preservation, and redemption, for the knowledge of thy son Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and the hope of glory. In the days of childhood and youth, in the midst of weakness, blindness, and danger, Thou hast protected me; amidst afflictions of mind, body, and estate, Thou hast supported me; and amidst vanity and wickedness Thou hast spared me. Grant O merciful Father, that I may have a lively sense of thy mercies. Create in me a contrite heart, that I may worthily lament my sins and acknowledge my wickedness, and obtain remission and forgiveness, through the satisfaction of Jesus Christ. And, O Lord, enable me, by thy grace, to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth, vanity, and wickedness; to make use of thy gifts to the honour of thy name; to lead a new life in thy faith, fear, and love; and finally to obtain everlasting life. Grant this, Almighty Lord, for the merits and through the mediation of our most holy and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen

Ever feel off course? At the mercy of the ever changing winds of circumstance? This simple thought reminds me that though I cannot choose what happens to me, I get a choice in how I respond. And it is that choice that will often determine the direction in which I will go. Victoriously over the sea, or crashed on the rocks. Victor Frankl worte in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that,”…everything [can be] taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Frankl found a freedom and a renewed purpose as he quit wondering why his struggle and began to consider rather what was he going to do to bring about a meaningful outcome. I think that the biblical narrative of Joseph really shows at many levels this ability to set our sails. As Joseph stood before his brothers, he declared that, “What you meant for evil, God has meant for for good.” I see in this not just a simplistic generalization, but rather a deep spiritual conviction that he had decided he was more than his events. Though imprisoned, he was not a prisoner. Though hated by his brothers, he was not a reject. And though only second to the Pharaoh himself, he was not ultimately in charge. Joseph set his sails to accommodate even the fiercest winds of adversity. Frankl could not change the fact that racism and hateful persecution had blown into his life, but he could adjust how he responded to it. And even though, to a certain degree, we cannot change what happens to us, we do at minimum have control over how we respond. I think Ella Wheeler Wilcox in her poem ”One Ship Sails East” captures a great truth:

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
‘Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

Newton’s first law of motion states that “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Objects tend to “keep on doing what they’re doing.” In fact, it is the natural tendency of objects to resist changes in their state of motion. This tendency to resist changes in their state of motion is described as inertia.

Apply quickly to our own life. As long as we are at rest, we stay at rest. Never changing, never moving forward – always comfortable with the status quo. We must be unbalanced enough to require action in our life if we are to ever advance in a forward direction. Yet, we resist these forces that come to help emancipate us from our doldrums, which though calm create a deadly situation. Yet, if we will find motion in our life, we can remain in action unless acted upon by unbalancing force. Insert the fact, that as we continue to move forward, we pick up momentum and energy and it requires situations of increasingly greater consequence to deter or slow us from our set direction. And that which would have severely disturbed us earlier, no longer even threatens our course.