Last year, I deliberately chose to get into a home-based business with the stated purpose of bringing in a little extra cash for my family.   My personal goal was to make a minimum purchase once a quarter to maintain active status and be available to supply products when people requested them.  Let the website do the majority of the work – I wasn’t going to hassle anybody.  I had a pretty laissez-faire attitude about the whole thing – no pressure, no stress, have fun.  Little did I know that my underlying desire was to prove that I could juggle more balls than I already had flying through the air.  Was I ever in for a lesson – God will show us what’s really in our hearts!

When the “carrots” of recognition and potential to increase my earnings were dangled in front of me, I started chasing them – hard.  I didn’t realize I was that competitive, because that was not the purpose I initially expressed before undertaking this venture.  When I saw my level of consistency recognized while I wasn’t even trying to gain acknowledgement or accolades, I began to think, “What could I accomplish if I actually put some concentrated effort into this thing?  I can really make it work for me!”  And the flesh took off…but in the process, I allowed someone else’s standard to become my own.  It became impossible for me to maintain.  And I had to admit that I wasn’t truly trusting God to be my Source.  I was trying to be my own waymaker…a major no-no!  By extricating myself from the business by the end of the year (when I finally saw the light of my true, ugly, impure motives), I wasn’t admitting defeat – I was confessing that I’d started out on a faulty premise and built on a shaky foundation.  Humbling?  Yes.  Less costly than continuing to charge until I ran smack into the wall?  Thank the Lord, yes.

Ask yourself, “Did someone else set this goal for me?”  If so, that makes for ill-constructed aspirations.  You’ll reach the finish line and you won’t even appreciate or enjoy the prize – because it’s what someone else wanted you to want.  Selah.

Are you currently championing something you don’t really believe in?  It’s not too late to ask God to redirect your trajectory…

“God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.”

(II Samuel 22:33)

“Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?”

(Job 22:2-3)

“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

(Ecclesiastes 11:5)

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

(Isaiah 43:19)

“Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.”

(Acts 2:28)

© Copyright 2011 by Kayren J. Cathcart