Without Compromise, pt. 7: What Happens Next?
When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon). When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students. As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).
The underlying basis of the story is this: In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured. In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3). Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20). But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.
How did they do it? One way was by trusting God with the outcomes.
My calling has been to serve in Christian ministry, and specifically in Christian Schools. More pointedly, God called me to serve Christian schools that were broken, hurting, dysfunctional, or underperforming in some way, to be used by Him to help restore these schools to environments that honored God and performed with excellence. In one of those schools, I served as the secondary principal during the economic struggle and housing market collapse around 2006 and 2007. This school was in Florida, which was hit particularly hard by this crisis. One of the results was that the enrollment of this school dropped from about 900 students to about 550 students in a little over 2 years. Near the end of my last year at that school, my boss assured me that my job was safe even with the enrollment decline, so I continued on with the normal end-of-year activities, including chaperoning the senior trip. However, on my first day back into the office after the trip (and also right after the graduation weekend) he called me into his office to tell me my position had been eliminated, and my job would end in 3 ½ weeks. At that moment, I was confronted with the opportunity to decide how I would respond. I could panic, or I could lean into God and place the outcomes of the next few weeks into His hands. In full transparency, my typical response would be to panic about my ability to take care of my family, but in this instance, I suddenly felt the peace of God as He brought to my memory Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” I decided almost immediately that I believed in God and His Word and, therefore, could trust that He was directing my steps. So, instead of turning to fear, I smiled, looked at my boss, and said, “Thank you, I know that this means that God has something even better for me, and I am trusting His provision for my family.”
I think that’s the mindset we see in Daniel, in chapter 1, verses 14-16, which say, “14 So he . . . tested them ten days. 15 And at the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. 16 Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.” What we see is that Daniel and his friends had negotiated a 10-day trial with their boss in a group experiment. (It’s important to note here that by doing it as a group, so they were able to keep each other accountable and provide support, strength, and encouragement for one another.) In this experiment, they were willing to place the outcome in God’s hands and let objective measurable results indicate the future course, trusting those results to God. At the end of the 10 days, they measured the data (appearance and weight), and the data supported Daniel’s request. Daniel had maintained his faith, trusted God, found a rational, reasonable, and gracious way to pursue a solution, and God responded in a way that fulfilled His purpose.
This makes me wonder, was the outcome supernatural or simply the product of a healthy diet? They were eating healthier foods and ended up looking and feeling healthier (therefore likely a correlation to their diet). However, the speed and magnitude of the change in appearance were completely unnatural and hard to believe (therefore likely affected by God to honor their faithfulness and protect His name). My conclusion is that it was both. As He usually does, a sovereign God used a natural process (and magnified it) to accomplish His purpose). Regardless, Daniel and his friends were willing to trust God with the outcome: they were not trusting in their particular strategy or in the outcome they were expecting to see; rather they were trusting in God.
The end result of my own personal experience of trusting God with the outcome when the future was unknown was that God provided in an incredible, clearly God-caused, and perfect way to meet our needs and move us to the next step that He had for the life of our family (that’s a story for another time, perhaps on the podcast that will along with this article). But that’s what God does, He uses our circumstances to bring about the result that brings Him glory and furthers the Kingdom.
That leads to my questions for you: whether it is life outcomes or project/task outcomes, how are you navigating these things as part of your faith? Are you willing and able to trust God with the outcomes even if it’s not what you wanted? Do you see God’s hand involved in the process and the purpose when you are tested? My encouragement for you would be to take some time and make an “altar” list – a list of personal experiences where God has worked in an unexpected way, as touchstones to strengthen your confidence in God, to serve as your constant reminder that you can trust God with the outcomes.
The Lesson of Outcomes, therefore, is that God is involved and active in your life, even in the midst of trials and challenges. You need to learn to see and trust His hand in the process and in the outcome.
