When Mae-Tuin told us the title of her message was “the plank,” I immediately thought that she was referring to the plank exercise, which is balancing on your toes and forearms as you hold the rest of your body off the ground for a long period of time.
I thought to myself, that is a great analogy for patient endurance. I don’t care what you tell me, planks are hard!
But instead of talking about the plank exercise, she took her personal experiences with Treetop Trekking and pulled out some deep insights for life.
My message SparkNotes are as follows:
The Plank
- Direction
- What is your direction/path?
- What is your distraction?
- Destination
- What is your plan?
- What is your downfall? (Personal Limitations)
- Dominion
- What is your purpose?
- What is your Ark? (The Impossible Task)
Every category of Direction, Destination and Dominion was paired with deep and difficult questions that require deep and difficult answers. I’ve spent many days asking myself these types of questions and I found that it is best to ask the Creator about creation. Put another way, if I went to a restaurant and wanted to know what was in the meal I just ate, I would get a more accurate answer from the chef than the bus boy/girl who brought me the food.
As humans, we often default to what we know, experience and hear from others in determining our Direction, Destination and even Dominion. But if we really want to answer these questions with any accuracy and come close to discovering what God has for us, then perhaps we should ask the God who created us. Mae-Tuin reminded us that the process is not always quick and easy, but it may require waiting, and more specifically, active listening.
I suggest that we take a page out of the book of Psalms in our inquiry with the Lord:
Psalm 139 (NIV)
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
My prayer for us all is that we would continue to seek the Lord for our Direction, Destination and Dominion in every season of our life. May the Holy Spirit guide us, empower us, and lead us into His ways. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!