Back pockets

In the corporate world, I often hear salesmen refer to the back pocket. They will meet a potential customer and offer their sales pitch. If things aren't going smoothly or they need an extra boost to close the deal, they'll have something extra in their "back pocket." It might be a special discount on price or an extra freebie. Whatever it is, it sweetens the pot. They don't expect to use this bonus, but it's there just in case. A back-up plan.

When God calls us to do something, He doesn't always reveal the process by which He will carry things out. His timing is not our timing. His methods are not our methods. When we are staring into the dark with nothing but a call from God, sometimes we want to generate a back-up plan.

God may call us to wait on a certain type of person to marry. If the wait is too long, we may decide God needs our help. We begin settling for less and compromising our dreams and values. We overlook things we normally wouldn't tolerate. We try to twist and squeeze our choice to make it fit the design we were originally called to wait for. Maybe our model has many of the characteristics we are looking for. But what about the missing pieces? God would never give us an incomplete blessing. He wants to lavish us with things beyond our comprehension, yet we often expect Him to show up with half-mangled, yard sale leftovers. God doesn't work that way!

Maybe God calls us to leave our careers and pursue something new. Rather than taking steps of faith, we might remain in an unpleasant work environment. If God can't show us a five year business plan with income projections, growth potential and profit margins, we might not take Him seriously. I'm not suggesting we walk off the job the first time we have a bad day, but sometimes God calls us to do things that seem crazy to us. He asks us to trust Him. We might not know where the money will come from, but He will provide.

God doesn't usually reveal the ending up front. If He did, why would we need faith? The Bible shows us repeatedly where God called someone to do something extraordinary, yet only gave them one puzzle piece at a time. The rest of the pieces awaited them on the journey, and He didn't offer them a back-up plan. We do see, however, these same Bible characters pulling something out of their back pockets from time to time. Their back-up plans usually back-fired, as do ours.

"Don't be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow! Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time."
-Galatians 6:7-9