Moses, on Quitting

It’s been a rough week at work….month…face it, it’s been a rough season.

There are a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with me. But I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I’m wholly blameless either. I let my intuition grasp a situation in a split second, and then rather than hand it off to my brain to figure out, process, and present reasonably, my emotion just runs off with the idea all half cocked and charges at the windmill. This is not a good thing. There have been many days when I just wanted to throw in the towel…say that’s it, i’m done.

But what I’m learning in Jon Acuff’s Quitter as well as from other leadership and dream chasing gurus is: it’s not time to quit yet. It won’t be time to quit for a long time.

I give a lot to my current job (sometimes too much), but I get a lot in return. The work is interesting and challenging. I enjoy making order out of chaos. I am inspired by leading a team, and by inspiring them to find new ways to solve problems. I am proud of the idea that we’re standing up a system that will help a global organization communicate and deliver services more effectively.

I love the people I work with….well, most of them. And the ones I don’t love, yeah, those are the ones Jesus says to love anyway.

But these aren’t the reasons that I need to stay.

I need to stay because my dream is still brewing. It’s dripping slowly through the locally roasted, coarsly burr-ground sumatran-blend that will taste oh, so good when it’s done. But it would taste like mud if I got impatient, poured it into the cup right this instant and took a big swig.

It’s not my time yet. I’ve been hustling for exactly 12 days now. And I took two of them off. so….um, that’s more like 10. I need to practice. I need to make mistakes. I need to develop focus and discipline. I need to let God know I’m serious.

Moses didn’t lead the Israelites out of Egypt ten days after he showed up. It took a little longer. Sure they were miserable. Yeah, the locusts and blood and stuff, not such a great week, or month, or season for all of them. But he didn’t just say “Well Pharoah, dude, I’m over this, I’m done, I quit……all of y’all Israelites, it’s been nice, and I wanted to take you somewhere, but yeah, I’m a little pissed now, so I’m heading on back.”

Nope. He stuck it out. He let God work through him where he was. And what awesome work it was.

What do you need to learn while you chase your dream???