Stay In Your Lane
In my last two podcasts, I shared about a conversation I was part of during a business meeting. It was with a few people who all consult with the same company as me. The advice that was shared at the end of the meeting was to find what works and "stay in your lane." Many of the consultants smiled and felt good that they could find a lane and stick to it, but if you're anything like me, I felt stifled by that advice. I need freedom when it comes to finding lanes. In the image above I chose three different lanes because interestingly enough, that word "lane" has multiple perceptions. I imagined a highway or a path. I think it's interesting that there are lanes that say "this way only." I like to think outside the prescribed lanes and think where else can I go? What else can I do? Staying in one lane limits my vision to different options.
In the podcasts I go on to share how limited I would be today in my career and life if I only stayed in one lane. My husband and I were talking today about being and doing. I do things because I am a wife. I do things because I am a mother. I do because of who I am, but I am not limited in what I can do. I was created to go and do as child of God. I am not a child of God because of what I do. I am a child of God and so I do things like my Creator.
When I was studying at Cairn University, I was fortunate to earn two Bachelors degrees: Education and Bible. I loved my Bible professors. They all had different church backgrounds and experiences, but they all agreed that the centrality of the Bible focuses on who we are and what we were created to do. It was a primary focus we were taught that the whole of scripture always agrees with itself. God loves us and wants a relationship with us. In that relationship we are told to go:
Go subdue the earth
Go build an ark
Go march around the wall
Go find yourself in the desert
Go and sin no more
Rise and go
Go into all the world
Jesus came to show how us how to go and there were no lanes for the Son of God. His lane was the world. In all our going, there are times and things that create barriers in our journey. Sometimes those things are self-inflicted and sometimes they are situational. In all these things there is something that holds us back. It usually shows up in the form of doubt, despair, and being double minded. The goal was set but the lane isn't always clear.
In all cases, the Biblical accounts relate to me in some way. I get paralyzed in my fear and then I become blind to the opportunities that are ahead of me. I might find myself stuck in situation I didn't expect or anticipate and that's okay. I was created to be creative, to find ways around and over and through things because God is with me, and knows where I need to go. The powerful message in all of it, is that God prepared a way for us to go in advance. We can have confidence that though we may need to switch lanes or even get off the road and swim, we each have a purpose and a calling. We are all called to go and find our way. Going doesn't mean we have to run or even know where we're going. It certainly doesn't mean we need to stay in our lane. It does mean we have a God who is familiar with our coming and our going and who never abandons us as we find hope to rise again.
O LORD, You have searched me
and known me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down;
You are aware of all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
You know all about it, O LORD.
You hem me in behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.
Psalm 139:1-5