Jimmy Dean, an American singer and television host once remarked: “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Romans 12:2 reminds us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Adjustments are defined as small alterations or movements made to achieve a desired fit, appearance or result. They are so common that one can occur several times a day. They can attain satisfaction, safety or protection from harm. If we wish to cross a busy main road, but find it difficult to find a safe gap in the traffic to achieve that aim safely, then we may choose to adjust our current position and move to a more safer area, such as a pedestrian crossing. Perhaps we may have started to cross and suddenly notice a large bus or truck coming our way which had escaped our initial vision, to protect ourselves we may take a step back to the safety of the pavement. Adjustment is all about adapting, acceding and can even include an element of transformation, especially if the outcome will produce a marked change.
In life, most people like to feel that they are the ones in control of their destiny, however, when we consider our life in Godly pursuits, minor adjustments may not always suffice. Some tasks may need to be escalated to specific assignments that require fulfillment. Assignments are categorical tasks or actions allocated to individuals for designated purposes. They are often given by God, to His chosen ones, for the benefit of the world at large. All God-given assignments are important because everyone and everything matters to Him. In His eyes, there is not one person on earth who can be considered unimportant or inconsequential.
Each is given life for a specific purpose or task, no matter how far-reaching or incidental that may appear. There are several instances mentioned in the Bible, in various consequential scenarios, who include such important persons as Moses, Noah and Joseph to name but a few from the many. Perhaps one of the lesser known assignments is recorded in Revelations 11:1-19, given to the Apostle John, which informs us: “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the Earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.”
It is not always deemed necessary for us, as the children of God, to know or even understand the reasons why God assigns particular tasks to individuals. We only need to retain faith and trust that there will always be a definitive purpose for the given assignment, whatever or wherever that may be. Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist once remarked: “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.”
In many ways, fate plays an important role in life. It can provide opportunities or suggest particular paths to follow. However, whether or not we choose to accept or reject these courses is down to individual predilection or psychology. In this particular field, adjustment is regarded as the thought process that decides the eventual outcome. It may or may not include a coping strategy. We are constantly challenged by obstacles or hindrances that make life difficult for us or for others. Choices are constantly being faced. We need to trust and have faith in God that everything asked of us is for a specific reason, especially if the proposed outcome will avoid a nemesis. James 1:2-4 confirms: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Amen.
