Letter #2: To a Friend Who Feels Their Current Work Setting is a Distraction

Dear One,

It was so good to be with you recently, as your friendship and faithfulness have been such a constant in my life across many seasons. It sounds like even in the blessings of this last year of life, there’s a looming sense of distraction by the current work and setting in which you find yourself. It’s not the small distractions nagging at you – notifications, alerts, disruptions. It sounds like you feel caught in one big distraction as you seek to work well, love Jesus, and progress in your career. I’m so grateful you shared this honestly with me – I’m impressed by your willingness to put words to how you’re wrestling with those nagging senses of uncertainty about how the present moment will connect with the eventual destination. 

I want to remind you that you’re not alone. I feel this, too, and constantly hear the many forms this wrestling can take: 

“How will my life in this city get me to the place I hope to be? Can I be sure that the skills I’m learning at this company will reflect well on my abilities when I want to pursue the next opportunity? When can I ever find time to execute on my goals when I’m always putting fires out? I know I want to be married one day, but the place I’m in right now doesn’t seem to be helping me get there.”

There are so many things that feel like a distraction to the “goal” that’s out there, or within reach… if I just ensure to do X, Y, and Z correctly.

I’m quick to forget this, but God reminded me today that this isn’t His calculus or the way of Jesus. It was actually the Easter story that challenged me here, and I really hope this brings you some true comfort and encouragement as you wrestle with what it means to be present in the place you find yourself.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. (Luke 24:1)

Have you ever paused right there? I don’t think I have.

These disciples of Jesus showed up at his tomb on Easter morning prepared to care for the dead, decaying body of their teacher, leader, and – they hoped – Messiah. I bet the questions running around in their minds and hearts reflected the looming feeling of distraction from the plan, disappointment at another dead end, fear and embarrassment that they ever hoped at all. 

We know with almost regrettable familiarity that Jesus is not dead, but alive. But this was so groundbreaking to these first disciples that it left them perplexed and dizzied. In one moment, they’re forcing themselves through a cycle of grief to take the next faithful step to tend to the buried body of Jesus, and in the next, they’re the first messengers of news so unbelievable, unexpected, unknowable that all who hear it are “left wondering.” (Lk. 24:12)

I, too, wonder: How long did it really take for the mystery of this moment to come into clarity and understanding for them? How did the surprise of the resurrection impact their imaginations in their next encounters with disappointment? Am I willing to let the wonder of a resurrected Jesus come into contact with my own uncertainty about the way forward?

Our God makes a way when there is no way. I’m not here to tell you anything you don’t know already. But as you bear up under the burden of this heavy fog of distraction and disappointment, Jesus is near as He was to these women who show up on Easter morning expecting the deadest of dead ends.

I don’t know how God is going to use your current setting to get you to the next thing. But I want to remind you that our God wastes nothing! The women didn’t need to use their burial spices, but they weren’t wasted – they’re an aroma of hope to us even now.

I hope you’ll continue to take time to voice your grief, uncertainty, and longing to our God and others. Remember that because “death was no match” (Acts 2:24) for Jesus, and because your identity is firmly rooted in this victorious Savior, you are not defined by the distraction and disappointment you feel. It’s so hard to remember this. I hope you won’t just rage against the disappointment. Instead, “cut the engine”, as Michaela O’Donnell and Lisa Slayton say in Life in Flux. In our world of constant motion, we must let the engine rattle quiet so we can hear a deeper reality. In that space, we can listen to God, those who love us, and our own spirit. Take the next faithful step from the momentary quiet instead of the ceaseless motion.

Life in Jesus is the very antithesis of a dead end, but this is only because Christ himself became death – the very nature of disappointment and despair – and left it empty. I’m so glad He is our King. I’m confident he is with you right now.

I’m praying for you. I hope our God makes you, like these women, a messenger of dizzying hope as one whose taste of disappointment is forever flavored by an encounter with a living Jesus.

We are Together in Christ,
Rh