Pride

I was hanging out with my friend Joe yesterday. He is on staff with FCA but used to be a college baseball coach. He was a good college baseball coach. A couple of years ago he got fired from the school he had been at for almost 20 years.
So, we are hanging out and talking and he told me that he was going to be going to Atlanta for a big baseball tournament that the high school travel team he coaches was going to be playing in. I told him off the cuff that that might be fun because he would see some of his old coaching buddies who would be scouting players at the tournament. As we continued to talk I realized that it might not be fun for Joe to see some of his old coaching buddies and I asked him about that. Would it be hard to see them and know that they are still coaching and he is not. "Yeah," he said.
I knew exactly what he meant. It is hard to be let go, passed over, down-sized, etc. The crazy thing is that Joe and I both know he is right where God would have him, doing what God has gifted him to do. He would probably say that he is closer to God than he was a year ago, his family is in a better place and would agree with all these things. As I looked him in the eye though I could see that glimmer of, "Yeah" still lingering.
His pride still wanted to be coaching partly because he loves it, but partly because he just wanted to play out things on his own terms. This is a hard thing to swallow as a man. I got passed over for a store a year ago, another friend of mine got turned down for what he thought might be his dream job with the FBI and we all would say in our head, "God's will," but in our hearts we struggle, when we are honest, we still struggle some with it. There is a little pause there.
Jesus was good at really believing in his heart, "God's will." Joe and I started talking about Jesus and others in the Bible that were just faithful to whatever God had for them. They stayed right on His heels, trusted Him and very often set aside their pride and personal plan for whatever He had for them. They went where He wanted them to go, said what He told them to say and grew closer to Him because of it. I am grateful that I have a Savior that I can look to, that modeled how to listen to, follow and REALLY trust our Abba. I am also grateful that I have friends that I can sit in chairs at Starbuck's with or in the back booth of my restaurant and have real conversations with, pray with and just be truthful with. Those times help that little pause get shorter and shorter.

Blessings...