Heart Compass (Hope Floats)
In my life’s journey, I’ve learned there are two kinds of details that have a major impact on outcome and destination.
There are details that derail and cause me to fail; and there are details that unveil, so I can prevail.
I’m a perfectionist. In whatever I endeavor to do, I always try to put my best foot forward. I care about excellence. I care about details. It’s how I’m wired.
Ever heard the saying, “The devil’s in the details?”
Those are the details that derail, intended to make us fail. With my my best foot toward the finish line, bound and determined to finish the race before me, along the way perfectionism can become potholes. Slowing me down until I lose steam... and eventually give up.
Because I value excellence, it’s easy to wander down side roads of self-criticism and doubt when my heart compass is not oriented toward The Father.
Even as I write this blog, the road signs are popping up in the peripheral vision of my path. There’s Bad Sentence Structure Street to my right. Not Interesting Enough Avenue, on my left. Are-you-sure-that’s-correct-punctuation-you’re-not-really-a-professional-blogger Boulevard, now coming into view…
If I let myself wander down one of those detail trails, I’ll soon be tap-tap-tapping that right corner button up there on the keyboard:
Delete. Delete. Delete.
And before I know it, I’ll be seeing another sign up ahead, large and in charge:
DEAD END.
U Turn.
I’ll be retracing and erasing steps and words and thoughts. Canceling creativity.
Reversing forward motion.
In this moment, instead of pursuing the peripheral, I pause and take a few deep breaths…remove my fingers from the keyboard, and look out the window at the morning sky.
There’s a magnificent sunrise spreading across a rose-colored canvas. As I marvel at its beauty, I hear a whisper-in-a-breath speak to the depths of my inner being in two simple words:
HOPE FLOATS.
And I know it’s the voice of The Holy Spirit, using the name of a Sandra Bullock movie that I love, to nudge me back on track and off of the delete button.
As I savor the details of God’s sunrise, His love for me is unveiled in the beauty of His creation. And I hear again, in my spirit, those two whispered words that are drawing me near to Him: Hope Floats.
In the danger zone of the devil’s details, I can prevail over dark alley thoughts that lead to dead ends. I can take those derail-details captive (2 Cor. 10:5) and keep traveling onward -- and onWORD – in The Way, The Truth and The Life.
That is what I’m doing, as I finish this blog. Dissin’ the devil. Saying yes to God’s way instead.
As I choose to keep my heart compass toward Him, the meaning of the message in the Sandra Bullock movie reveals itself to my mind:
“Faith is the confidence that what we HOPE for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”
– Hebrews 11:1 [emphasis added]
Though I can't see it yet, I know the finish line is up ahead. It’s around the next bend. All l I have to do is keep running; keep praying; keep listening and watching for God’s details in the landscape along The Way. Saying no to the devil’s detours.
Something that feels like a shot of adreneline causes me to pick up my pace again. Not the bad kind of adreneline that’s an emergency response to fear, but the good kind -- the God kind -- that feels like I’m suddenly accelerating with less effort; I’m feeling lighter in my steps.
Well, what d'ya know….I am lighter! So much so, I feel like I’m actually starting to float.
But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
-Isaiah 40:31
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
-2 Cor. 10:5