This past week has been an interesting and thought provoking week for me. Last Friday I received a phone call from Stephanie Sheehan, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Adventist University, continuing a conversation that began about three months ago. We had been dialoging about an open faculty position in the School of Business at Southern that had taken several intriguing twists and turns over the course of the months long conversation. The simple summary of the phone call on Friday was "with everything that has transpired, are you still interested in teaching at Southern." On Wednesday of this week I received an official invitation from the Academic VP's office to join the School of Business faculty. Throughout the past three months both Lisa and I have felt like every time the door seems to be closing on this opportunity God has pushed the door open again (the post from March 13 is a response to incidents that happened as part of the ongoing dialogue!) Due to the vast array of evidence that seems to point to God's direction in this matter on Wednesday evening I accepted the position.
Here is where things took an interesting twist - it was suggested to me that I should give Southwestern Adventist University (my current employer) an opportunity to counter the offer from Southern to try to entice me to stay. While this sounds intriguing and might be a shrewd approach what does it say about listening for God's voice and believing you have heard Him speak. If I truly believe that God has been leading and opening these doors then it becomes disingenuous to suggest that Southwestern could do ANYTHING to get me to stay. This is NOT to imply that Southwestern is a bad place to be but if God is really calling me to Southern being ANYWHERE else is the WRONG place to be - it simply comes down to what do you believe you have heard God say.
I think of the story of Balaam when Balak asked him to curse Israel and God told him "No!" The money Balak offered was too enticing so Balaam went back to God and asked Him if the answer of "no" was firm, or was there a possibility the answer could be "yes". How often do we not want to hear what God has to say because it isn't what we might want to hear. Am I guilty of placing my wants and desires in front of God's will? Do I attempt to manipulate the outcome so it works to my benefit? In his book "Stop in the Name of God" Charley Kirk makes the statement "there is a God, and you are not Him." I need to remember to let God be God and not try to manipulate the outcome in a way that I think would be desirable. God knows what He is doing and He doesn't need me to tell Him what to do.
