Is Today The Enemy Of Your Tomorrow?

When Today Is The Enemy Of Tomorrow

After laboring for many years abroad on the mission field as a newly married couple my husband and I had our first baby. We encountered a huge unknown as we realized the Lord was leading us back home to the States. Our life was good but we felt it was time for something new, although unsure of the details. For months we struggled with the difficult decision to return to the United States. We held tight to the familiar life we knew, trying to “make it work”, until it became overwhelmingly clear that it was time let go.

In the book, Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud, the author wisely notes, “Today may be the enemy of your tomorrow. In your business and perhaps your life, the tomorrow that you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today”. While home was familiar, returning would require us to leave behind everything we’d built in our lives and set out into the unknown.

Is It Time To Quit?

In Luke 5 Jesus first meets Simon Peter after he’s had a long and unsuccessful night of fishing. In fact, Simon had quit fishing and was out of his boat, cleaning his nets on the shore. Jesus, interrupts him and invites him to try again with these words: “launch out into the deep”. Simon is reluctant to go back out as he describes what had been a night of fruitless “toiling”. “Toil” is a word that literally means to work extremely hard and incessantly. Simon had been tirelessly fishing all night with nothing to show for it. Defeated, he’d finally quit.

How many of us can relate to the feeling of “toiling”? We repeatedly try to make something work without seeing the results we desire. Maybe its a friendship that you continually invest in with nothing reciprocated, or business idea that is draining your resources and yielding no growth. Perhaps it’s a situation that you continually try to control but deep down you know it’s time to let go. Oftentimes we have our hands so tightly clenched on the steering wheel, clinging to the hope of arriving at our destination when Jesus, who we’ve tucked away in the trunk, is inviting us to quit. It’s time to give up your toiling, and let Him take the lead.

Quitting isn’t an attribute we highly esteem, hard work and tenacity win the day in the “pull yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” culture we find ourselves in. But there is a difference between hard work with Jesus at the center and a “toiling” work, absent of His Presence or leadership. This kind of work leaves us exhausted, discouraged, and fruitless. Is there an area of your life where you are toiling? Is Jesus asking you to give up and launch out into the deep, into the unknown?

What Happens When We Quit?

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When we quit, we admit that what our efforts apart from Jesus have been in vain. We can figuratively take our hands off the steering wheel and invite him to take over. Maybe this will have practical implications in your daily life or perhaps it will simply be a shift in the posture of your heart as you surrender to His leadership.

Reluctantly Simon goes out again, this time Jesus is beside him in the boat. The expedition that follows is so bountiful he’s afraid the boat will sink. He calls his friends to bring their boat and help him bring in the overwhelming catch. Upon returning to land Simon Peter’s eyes are open and he recognizes Jesus as his Lord. He unequivocally declares that he will give up everything and follow Him into the unknown.

If Jesus Invites You, He Will Be With You

As my family moved home to America in the midst of the Coronavirus situation we knew were heading back into a season of unknowns. Jobs were scarce, economies were shaken and people were afraid. In the midst of the uncertainty I was often tempted to be afraid. A wise man had these words for me, “fear is imagining a situation or a scenario where God is not”. Thanks, Dad!

How often do we feel afraid? Is it because our vain imaginings are taking us to places where God is not? As believers, a future without God is not reality, He is never apart from us. We truly have nothing to fear. He is with us, in the boat, calling us out into the deep waters and into the unknown.

From Toiling To Thriving

In the midst of our labor, whether as a mom at home building an environment for our kids to thrive, at work building a career or managing high-pressure environments, finishing your degree, or working towards a goal. Will we stop what we’re doing and hear the voice of our Savior beckoning us to “launch out into the deep”? Will we give up striving, maneuvering and jockeying for position and rest in His presence beside us, leading us. He is ready to provide everything we need and MORE.

Will we leave behind what we know and follow Him into the unknown?

It won’t be easy or safe, but He promises to write a beautiful history of partnership and provision for His friends who will hear his voice and launch out into the deep.