Pushing Through & Letting Go

There’s a healthy balance between making up your mind to do what you know you can do in spite of every obstacle and letting go, trusting that God will make a way in his own time.

The hardest part of my 17-year musical journey has been the letting go—the waiting and trusting while projects I have endeavored to finish have been delayed by sudden illness, injury, or something else. I remember the times I had to push through the adversity and figure out away around the road blocks. I also remember the times I had to discipline myself to wait and to trust that it was all happening for a reason; to recognize and embrace the fact that, in spite of how things may have appeared, the hand of God was at work.

Every journey is different and for whatever reason God has made it so that mine has been slow and steady. I remember someone coming up to my mother when I was just a teenager and saying, “Don’t be discouraged if things don’t happen right away; God is setting things in order.” I have clung to those words through every recording process as I have felt and even now feel like I’m being forced to be the tortoise in “The Tortoise and the Hare.” My hope is that my story will end the same; that I’ll cross the finish line in victory and be proud of what I’ve accomplished.

The fact of the matter is, it takes discipline to keep going but it takes just as much discipline to wait. The things we are accomplishing during the waiting are just as important to God as what we consider to be our “finished product.” The ministry that isn’t posted on our tour schedule, the songs that are never recorded or shared, our day-to-day life experiences . . . everything is significant. As we strive to be obedient and faithful in the interim, God works in us. He uses the “off” seasons to prepare us so that when we do finally get “out there” again, we will have something more to offer than “just” a song or CD.

The race we are on is spiritual. The work we have to do will get done in his way and in his time. We don’t have to sit around and wait for it to happen but we also don’t have to force it.

This balance of work and trust is beautifully described in Psalm 37.

“Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday

Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him . . .”

May we work hard in spite of the obstacles. May we never give up when we need to push through. May we never push through when we need to wait. May we do all things in His strength.

God, keep us close to you so we can know your will.

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