For 2024, my One Word 365 is yield. One of the bigger lessons I’ve learned so far is God means business when He gives us a word in due season.

Recently one of our nonprofit partners shared a fundraising opportunity she’d discovered online. I checked it out, (thought I’d read everything carefully) and it sounded pretty good. One of our board members had worked with the program with another group, and had a positive experience. Great!

And then it wasn’t A detail in the tiny print of the agreement. tripped us up. Yes, it’s my fault for not reading it more closely. Nevertheless, I hate wasting man hours and enthusiasm of others.

Please pardon my momentary pout, Dear Reader . . . Sorry. I’m back now; I was afraid my face might get stuck like that.

Back to God meaning business. One Word 365 is a goal, an attribute to work on, to aspire to for a whole year . It means learning and growing in my faith walk. Seriously though, some days it feels more like crawling than walking.

Maybe there’s an important prayer in your heart, and the answer eludes you. Perhaps a spark of an idea grabs your attention? You’ve tried to keep your heart sensitive to God’s leading. Still, the idea just keeps tickling your brain until you finally give in and do a little research. Only then, do you yield the idea to praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance? For a while things were going well, and it was easy to think the Lord had finally begun to answer your prayer.

We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God’s purpose prevails.

Proverbs 19:21

You get to work making plans, making contacts. Excitement starts to build.

Then a meeting is canceled, an email seems to be taking longer than expected to be answered. Your excitement begins to wane . . . and then the phone calls comes telling you an integral piece of the plan has fallen through.

Dear Reader, I’m embarassed to admit that’s more or less my story. Praise God, there’s the rest of the story. I’m learning that just because God means business when it comes to obedience, it doesn’t mean He passes out pink slips.

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

While finishing a non-project task I started thinking about all the things I could cross off my fundraiser to-do-list. I realized how thankful I was that the phone call hadn’t been a day later when our monthly newsletter was scheduled to go out announcing the fundraising opportunity to all of our partners. I’m confident that a technology and social media learning experience to promote the event wouldn’t be wasted.

Then I went downstairs, and ate lunch while watching an episode of a fav sitcom, then went to change the laundry. That’s when it happened, Dear Reader, right there in the hall. It was like a big weight rolling off of my shoulders.

Somewhere between pouting and recognizing God’s hand of mercy in the mix of planning and tasks, I yielded my will to His. I remembered that when God calls us He means business. When we commit to His work, He commits to equipping us and supplying our needs.

This is what I’d like to share with you: even if we miss the boat, we blow “it,” God doesn’t. He knows our hearts, where we are, and how to get us back on track. And sometimes in the busyness of business, we just need to pause to listen again, for a minute longer.

 For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

hebrews 12:11