Know Your Why by Ken Costa

Author:Ken Costa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2016-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

It was a brilliant and releasing picture. I felt the roller-coaster ride. And I felt the nausea of seasickness as I rode high in expectation, only to be rolled over by a crashing wave of dashed hope. It is true that when life feels turbulent, we often feel as if we are stumbling and staggering and losing our courage. This is a feeling I recognize during troubled times.

I have made no major decision in my life without finding myself crying out to God. And at times it has been from the depths of my being, as the psalmist described. But God brings the sailors and me out of distress. In the metaphorical stormy seas, the ships are piloted to safety, and so we are led through the turbulence into the right port. Now that is a liberating thought: after the terror of the ride, we are led to peaceful waters.

Making a final decision takes a deep breath and conviction. The Bible promises that if we are courageous in pursuing the ways of God, he stays with us. Undergirding all our decisions is this great reassurance: “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

5. CONTENTED

Paul said in his letter to the Philippians that he had “learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). This is about as difficult a lesson to learn as any. I am helped by the fact that he said “I have learned.” Even for Paul, this response did not come instantly or effortlessly; it took application for him to be content regardless of outcome or circumstance. It’s so easy to be content when we get what we want, not so easy when we don’t.

A well-made decision results in experiencing relief that the decision has been made, as well as the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (v. 7 ESV) that comes from the Lord. It is almost like a reward for the mental anguish that the decision-making process often entails, a kind of “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

Sometimes at this stage a confirmatory sign will corroborate the decision. Or looking back over past decisions can confirm a choice we have made was the right one. What we mustn’t do, however, is live in the past. We mustn’t look back and think, If only this had happened, or, If only I’d not done that.

Ecclesiastes tells us, “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). This is a great piece of advice. It can be so easy to question our past decisions or wish that things had worked out differently. But this is fruitless. We can’t even begin to imagine how God has used some of our strange decisions to shape us for the better.

Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple, reflected that “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”3 He had dropped out of college but kept returning to attend the classes he found interesting. The one that particularly made an impression was the class on calligraphy.

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