Do you remember learning this little song in grade school?
“Stop, look, and listen, before you cross the street.
Use both your eyes and both your ears, and then use both your feet.”
This applies to most everything we do in our everyday lives. When I first started making notices about our music group’s upcoming concerts, I had a simple process for creating a page with four copies on it, which we could all print and cut into quarters to make small flyers. But like a lot of technology these days, the company whose “user friendly” software I used kept upgrading.
Every time I went to make a flyer, they changed something. What I had done before no longer worked. By trial and error and lucky guessing, I would finally “get ‘er done,” but it took hours to finally get it right. When the next flyer rolled around, they had changed something else.
What used to be a fun, easy task had become a frustrating, time-consuming guessing game. After hours of struggling, I would stop and pray, “Help, Lord!”
Then a new procedure would reveal itself to me and voila! Flyers! After going through this a few times, I finally got smart. I began asking God for help before I started the project. James 1:5 tells us if we lack wisdom in anything we should ask God for it, and He will give it to us liberally, and won’t be annoyed with us for asking.
What I learned from this actually applies to life in general, not just to computer stuff. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
This is not something a person just does automatically. The propensity for trusting in our own wisdom and understanding is a characteristic of human nature. But we can learn to sublimate that tendency and rely on someone who knows more than we do. And honestly, nobody knows more than God.
With our own wisdom and understanding, we’ll come up with some kind of a solution or process, only to find out later that there was a better, easier way. My plans and solutions tend to be complicated. God’s ways are streamlined. He is so much smarter than we are.
It’s a blessing to have understanding, but it is not wise to lean fully on it because it isn’t as reliable as God.
The Bible says He never changes, and He knows about circumstances we can’t possibly be aware of. I believe asking God for wisdom and trying to follow what He tells me to do has kept me from making some big mistakes that could have caused serious problems. Trusting Him reduces stress and is good for our mental health. I honestly believe it is a key to living a longer, healthier, and happier life.
I can’t claim to be at the point where I always remember to do this. As one of my favorite Bible teachers says, “I haven’t arrived yet, but I’ve left the station and I’m on the right track!”
I’m learning. So, think of the little poem. Stop for a moment. Look at the task. Then listen, trusting Him instead of leaning on our own understanding. Then proceed. This is just a good, healthy habit to develop.