Getting Disentangled, by Jane Lynch
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Are you entangled in things God never intended for you to do? How do you discern His best will for your life? It’s taken me a lifetime to figure this one out, and I still have a lot to learn! This past week, I was pondering whether to volunteer for something. The job suited my skillset, and I quite fancied having a go, but I wasn’t sure I had the time. I struggle to get so many things ticked off my to-do list, that in one sense it was madness to think of taking anything else on. Rather than worrying about it, I decided, possibly for the first time in my life, that my peace of mind would guide the decision. I didn’t over-analyse it, but trusted my heart and decided to go ahead.
I recently purchased a new robot cleaner, Rocky. I've programmed him to vacuum and mop my large kitchen floor daily, first thing in the morning. This is a wonderful blessing, as it saves me so much work. However, every so often, I forget to pick a floor cloth up before I go to bed the night before, and Rocky picks it up and gets it tangled in his brushes. I get a message in the app saying he’s stuck and can’t complete the job. As a result of this lapse, Rocky can take a few hours to complete what should have been done within the hour. Fixing Rocky is an easy reset. He needs a little help from me, his controller, to get back on track. But if I’m asleep, he remains stuck. Thankfully, unlike me, God never slumbers or sleeps! That means that He is always there to address our problems and help us when we make a mess of things. We don’t have to remain stuck!
When it comes to writing, I’ve had to think carefully about why I’m working on a particular project. I lost my mother a year ago, and I recently acknowledged to myself that the novel I had poured so much love, attention and research into had been partly for her benefit. It was great to print out some draft chapters for her to read, and she enjoyed them. I hope that one day I will finish it, as it’s based on a true story from our family, but after I lost Mum, it became less urgent to work on it, and I started thinking about an entirely different project I had been working on before. I always believed that the first idea was God-inspired, and yet I had abandoned it because I wanted to do something for my Mum! It wasn’t necessarily a bad choice, but maybe it wasn’t the best plan God had for me.
I would love it if my life choices and my writing were perfectly aligned with God’s will and purpose. I hope that I can take my own advice and not get entangled in things that He didn’t intend for me.
‘In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.’ Proverbs 16: NIV
Jane lives on the south coast and loves to write when she is not busy working on the committee as ACW treasurer. She started blogging on the ‘Medium’ platform during the pandemic and has a backlog of material there. She is hoping to resume work on her first novel again soon.
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