Success

What started as an idea grew into a plan and transformed into a reality. A couple of weeks ago I retook the Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course that I had initially taken in college. It had been six years since my first WFR course and I decided that it was time for a full refresher. I also knew that I wanted the Guide team, the adventure discipleship team that I lead, to earn this certification, too. With this being part of our curriculum, it made sense to host the course, and it would greatly reduce the overall cost of earning the certification. I didn’t know of any other programs in the area that were offering these courses, so I decided to open it up to people outside our organization. I just needed to find seven other people and we would have the course paid for. I turned to Facebook as my primary form of advertising and waited for a flood of people to sign up.

The day after the course details went live, I logged into my computer expecting our first few students to be registered. To my horror, no one had registered. We still had months to recruit, and I was confident that people would join, so I shook off my disappointment and kept waiting. Not long after that, I received a few email inquiries. Unfortunately, those people were trying to figure out how to make the course work in their schedules, but they were not going to be able to make it for the entire course. Every time I had hope that someone would sign up, it fell through and as the course got closer to the scheduled date, the pressure to find people grew.

It became clear that people were not going to come to me, so I needed to go to them. I started emailing every organization that I could think of that offers any adventure programming. I got responses saying something along the lines of, “I’m not sure anyone will be interested, but I will email this out to our staff.” Then I wouldn’t hear back. Or I would get a response that “We aren’t interested this year but if you offer this again, please let us know.” It felt hopeless. Gradually, a few people signed up, but there weren’t enough to cover the cost of the course. I was starting to get stressed and was losing sleep, and that’s when I finally stopped and asked God for help.

Immediately I could hear him say: “Don’t worry, I will take care of it.”

“But how?” I replied.

“I’ve got it; trust me,” I heard back.

Both doubt and anticipation filled my mind as I returned to my computer again and again to see if God was providing yet. Nothing. So, I sent more emails. I worked hard to find people, but I couldn’t get anyone to commit. As the start date approached my stress continued to grow. I kept praying for help and kept hearing God say, “I’ve got this; trust me.” I kept trying on my own. 

Then Faith, one of the Guide team members, asked me if I had surrendered the course to God. I knew that I needed to, but I didn’t know how. I prayed and acknowledged my need for surrender, but I didn’t really want to do it. I knew that I had to give up control but could only do this with Divine intervention. I eventually accepted that God would provide in his way and that it probably wouldn’t look like what I wanted it to. We needed 12 people, and on the weekend leading up to the course, we had 11. On that Saturday I received a text from someone who I knew had been thinking about joining; they were ready to commit. We had our 12! God had provided! Then I received an email from someone who was registered saying that they were not sure if they could make it. Something had come up at work. This would put us back at 11. At this point I knew that God was at work, and I was able to trust that whether we had 11 or 12 people it would be okay. On day one of the course, when I saw our 12th person pull into the parking lot, I knew that God was with us and that he had provided. There is no way that what happened was because of me. Proverbs 3:5-6 says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.” 

Even as I write this, I feel a tension within me. I have experienced the provision of the Lord. He provided exactly what we needed to run our Wilderness First Responder class but I still see my own desire for control. I want success to be mine. I want to be able to say, “Look at what I have done.” I want to trust in the Lord with my whole heart, but that goes against my nature. True surrender is hard because I have experienced successes from what I have been able to do. I feel like I don’t need God because I can do somethings on my own. My “something” does not compare to God’s everything. Only in him can I find full success.

 Reflection question:

-       Does surrender come easy to you?

-       What areas of your life do you still need to surrender.

Please join me in praying that God would teach us to surrender to him. I am confident that with your surrender will come success that will surpass your expectations, and this success will not be yours, but it will be his, to God be the glory.