I recently exchanged e-mails with a young lady who was seeking advice about a career change. During the course of our conversation she made this statement:
I have had an application to (a seminary counseling progam) filled out for a year but I haven’t felt the Lord moving me to send it.
After blessing her with my wisdom on the subject and making several profound and salient points I concluded by asking briefy, “What exactly does the Lord’s moving feel like?”
Happily, she was not put off by my tounge-in-cheek question and sent me this wonderful reply:
You completely exposed me on that snippet of God-talk! What I meant by “I haven’t felt the Lord moving me to send it” is simply that I have doubts as to 1) whether this is a viable vocational pursuit, 2) whether training of this nature is really necessary and, if so, how much, and 3) whether I’m really gifted enough to spend the bulk of my time in this manner. So, I should say, “I am not convinced in my mind that this is a wise course, and I’m hoping that something extraneous will inflame my emotions so that I can confidently act-one way or another-without doing the difficult work of untangling these questions.”
I could not have said it better!