The last several times we’ve moved, we have felt inspired to do so (the most recent one felt more like desperation and an escape from overwhelm).
In each case we found ourselves in, we have had to work hard, dive in, and learn new things.
Sometimes the things necessary for success have been overwhelming by choice and sometimes they have been overwhelming by situation.
However, in these cases, we were where we were because of what we interpreted as revelation.
Questioning whether it was revelation is unproductive and lacks faith.
But it’s worth asking the question whether I have shunned the given good from God.
In Matthew, Jesus teaches with a somewhat graphic story:
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 7:7-11
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Within the context of asking and receiving, Jesus suggests that people who ask (and we have asked many times for many things) will receive. But what they receive may not be what they asked for and expect.
When we ask for bread, God may give us what looks to us like a stone. We may ask for a fish and receive instead what appears to be a serpent.
What should our interpretation of these gifts be? That God in hateful or spiteful and gives us things we didn’t ask for for His own amusement and pleasure?
No. Jesus reminds us that we give our own children good gifts, and we are fallen, fallible, imperfect people (and parents). And therefore, if we give our children only good gifts, how much more likely is God to give us only good gifts, even if we think the gifts are stones or serpents?
Have I several times recently caused the given good—the good revealed as “do this”—to be interpreted by myself as a stone or a serpent?
Have I rejected the given good, and not endured enough to experience the true joy of the gift?
This is a conclusion only time can allow me to have the experience and humility to know, accept, and grow from.