What are you pursuing?

A few years ago, someone gave a word in church about being proactive. He described a chess game, where nothing is going to happen until someone makes a move; where you need to plan those moves to set up a situation where you can win. God may have a plan for our lives, but He's not just going to pour it out into our laps while we sit around and sip tea. He issued the challenge: What are you going to do to prepare for God to use you? What moves are you going to make?

I drew a picture and put it on my wall to remind me. Then I went back out into my life looking out for the times and places when I could do something differently, to bring about the things I was seeking.

This is an odd time to write this post, because at the moment God is trying to teach me to stop fighting, to stop trying, to step back and wait for Him. I think I took it a bit too far, and I'm having to learn now that there are codes you can't crack just by being strategic. He's being a more heavy-handed than He's been before, and I know I'm trying too hard when little things make me hysterical. Which has led to a rather uncharacteristic lifestyle of go to work for half a day, chill at home, repeat.

Still, this is something I think is really really important, for lots of good reasons.

The first one is that we're called to be like God. God has this way of combining apparent opposites which is frustratingly difficult to replicate. He's infinitely patient; yet He absolutely does not sit around waiting for us. The ultimate example of this is in sending Jesus to make a way for us to be in relationship with Him. He didn't wait for us to ask and then go 'right, I'll think about that'; instead He got on with making it possible, so that when we want to come to Him, He is ready and waiting with open arms.

The second is simply that it's practical. You're unlikely to get anywhere if you never set out. You've got a better chance if you set out at random, and an even better chance if you set out with a planned destination and a map of how to get there. Here's a couple of favourite quotes:

"Some people dream of success. Others wake up and work hard at it." - Winston Churchill (or Barbara Rubel, John Bytheway, Napoleon Hill - depending which bit of The Interwebs you ask)

"People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out in the world and happen to things." - Leonardo Da Vinci 

Here are a few buzzwords around the topic of what I want to talk about: strategy; proactive; pursuing; seeking; impatience; intentional; challenge; value; perseverance; excellence; rejection; change; humility; listening; relentless; forceful; preparation; effort; cost; stubborness.

Okay, let's dig in.

Value: This is important in figuring out what you're going to pursue. There are so many things out there - look for the things you really want, that actually matter to you. If you know something is of real value, you will be prepared to put in the trouble to get to it. If you're a Christian reading this, then a lot of figuring out what's valuable for you will be found in seeking out what God values.

Excellence: I think we sometimes forget, in our (right!) emphasis on God's grace in our failure, the incredibly high standard He calls us to. 'Be perfect,' said Jesus, 'as your heavenly father is perfect.' (Matt 5v48). God doesn't call you to mediocrity or to adequacy, He calls you to excellence. It doesn't have to be scary because it's God's plan for you and 'he who began a good work in you will complete it' (Phil 1v6). The relevance here? If you're going to pursue something, put your best into it. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Preparation: I'd argue that this is the key to excellence, because you need to know what you're doing to do it well. The first part of preparation is about knowing what you're dealing with: what exactly are you aiming for? What might get in the way of you getting there? What are the costs involved, and is it worth those costs? Is anyone else working to that end who you could fit in with? Then plan: how can you overcome the obstacles? Are there any new skills you need to learn? For the Christian, committing it all to God and asking Him to guide you through it is pretty important too.

Stubborness: Yep, I said it. In my book stubborness is a virtue all the way. Temper it with a bit of humility and care so you're not just trampling on other people, but seriously, if you give up at the first hurdle it probably wasn't worth going for in the first place, and if you give up at a later hurdle, you're throwing away the work you've already done, so stick with it until new evidence suggests it's not worth it.

I think this blog post is plenty long enough now, so I won't go into Reviewing or Humility, although they're both incredibly important. I'm also probably less qualified to talk about those :P

Momentum: This one's pretty straightforward. Don't forget to actually get started, and once you have done, keep moving. Doesn't have to be much; but if you ground to a complete stop, it will be harder to start again than it was to set out in the first place.



Back to the question: what moves are you going to make?

The secret to the moves is to break the challenge down. You want to be a doctor? Then you need to go to school and learn to read, spell and cipher. Once you've done that, you can move on to learning science, then studying medicine. Learning to read doesn't make you a doctor, but it sets you on the right path.

I'm having to break down the challenges really tiny at the moment, because I just don't have the ability to do it all in one go. Take my garden. It's not enormous, but it's too big for me with my tiny budget and less energy. I know, though, that if I leave it alone it will only get worse. So I do little things: ask a friend if I can borrow clippers; text the landlord in hopes he'll do the lawn; squash the aphids on a rose bud as I walk past. My garden doesn't look great, but there are a couple things in pots and less dandelions than before and you can actually sit on the grass.

I do the same with other things. Cooking means adding to my shopping list. Studying means putting the right book in my handbag. Running means mending my shorts. Cleaning means checking if we have j-cloths. Sewing means changing the bobbin in my machine. Those are the challenges I can manage right now, and they are worth my time, because they're setting the stage for something a bit bigger.