I’m the sort of person who likes to think about future events and know that I have contemplated a variety of potential outcomes, to have some degree of understanding as to how I might then respond. I’ve found that contingency planning helps to keep me from being paralyzed or otherwise stymied when my preferred outcome doesn’t materialize. Yet I have found that my best efforts don’t always consider the full range of possible outcomes and solutions.
One of the major contributors to my blind spots is a lack of resources. Don’t get me wrong – I consider myself incredibly blessed, and I have lots of resources to work with. However, if the solution to a potential problem requires one million dollars, I probably am going to dismiss that solution as soon as it pops into my head. Similarly if a solution required access to a private jet, or a meeting with the governor. Some things just aren’t at my disposal, so if I am thinking about how to solve a problem, I restrict my thinking to solutions that I believe that I can bring about. There may be a bunch of highly-effective solutions to a particular issue, but I fail to see them because I get stuck seeing only that which is obtainable with my own resources.
To a large degree, we see the solutions that have always been, and we can get stuck in that rut. We do something because that’s the way that we’ve always done it, and we’ve always done things that way because we figured out how to do it that way with the resources that we had. We accept the status quo, and have a hard time seeing some other way of approaching a problem. We even limit how we define the problem, so that the problem is neatly confined within our scope of what we know we can accomplish.
As a pastor, I need to do a better job of realizing that my boss is not resource-constrained. When the Apostle Paul was writing to the church in Philippi about his ministry efforts, he acknowledged going through times that were tough as well as times that were great, but that at every turn, it was the Lord who provided what was needed. God will always be the one who provides what we need for the proper solution to an issue, and there is nothing that isn’t available to the King of Creation. Ultimately, that means that this particular pastor’s perspective needs to grow, deepen, and evolve, so that it more closely reflects God’s perspective, without the self-imposed blinders.
In other words, we should be free to dream about the full scope of possible outcomes. Sure, some may seem more likely, and some may seem more challenging, but we would be wise to leave plenty of room for God to do those things that might otherwise seem unlikely. After all, He has a good track record of accomplishing the impossible.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron