Jason Buffington .com

This weekend, I was really humbled as God smacked me back into a place of submission.

 

My earthly father used to describe his style of parenting as drawing two parallel lines that pointed me towards a destination.  His job as my father was to whack me (not always literally) whenever I stepped outside the boundries of one of the lines.

 

On Friday, I was in a very anxious place.  I was frustrated with my job, my manager(s) and some current activities going on in my team.  I am usually "action first" – not to the extent of acting blindly, but with intuition and experience – heading down field, perhaps before the entire game plan has been built.  I still contribute to the plan, and by time the game is over, we have won based on the game plan – but all along, I am pushing us downfield.

 

As another anology, I have been a consultant on several disaster recovery projects – and my first advice is always, "Dont wait for the plan to be written before you start Step One."  I’ve personally seen companies that go out of business because they are still formally assessing their options and writing in their big binder, when calamity strikes.

 

So, on Friday, I vented on my bosses.  I told them how frustrated I was in email – like a Bull in the gates of the Rodeo, and was exasperated by waiting for the gate to open.  I overreacted to yet another set of plans that they had asked for.  Unfortunately, they dont know me that well, so my guess is that they are either freaked out or ticked off by now.

 

Then, on Saturday night, Anita and I went to church – and the message was from ROMANS 13:1-7 … submitting to Authority.  It talked about how all Authority comes from God, whether those in earthly power know it or not, whether they know Him or not – all power comes from Him.  So, I should be submitting to them, like I submit to Him.  And if I rebel against them, I am rebelling against Him.  That one stung.  I leaned over to Anita during the service and all I had to say was my new managers’ names – and she heard the rest of the sermon the same way that I did.

 

Saturday night church has two services, where Anita and I worship in the first hour – with me being significantly humbled this week – and in the second hour, we serve.  I run lights/sound for Kindergarten-1stGrade … and their lesson this week was on Patience (1 SAMUEL).

 

Not sure what this week will bring, but it is obvious that my arrogance had taken me outside of the lines that my Heavenly Father was drawing for me in my new vocational assignment – and He needed to whack me back between the lines.