I recently made a career transition and took a job with a startup. The major catch is that It’s in California and I “commute” to LA every week. The short version is that the transition has been rough. It’s a new culture, expectations, communication style, city, pace, and on and on. The rough start and a few honest conversations with the CEO led me to get a professional coach.
I was stoked to have this call with the coach and was searching for hope from any realm I could find. The call was amazing. She asked me to pretend I’d had a few too many and let out all my complaints. Then she asked me to vividly describe what my ideal scenario looked like in 6 months. It wasn’t just my title and my bank account, it was every aspect of personal health, connection with Jesus, the most important relationships, and recreation. As I rambled on, my coach simply said, you can have all of that and we can get you there. With that simple comment, I had hope for the first time in 3 months. There could be joy, fulfillment, purpose, and longevity in this. She helped me see hope and that was powerful.
While I realize that the coach has a personal interest in enticing me to use her services, I also believe that God met me at this moment. Through my conversation the coach commented that her prayer for the last month and specifically this morning, was that God would bring her clients who shared her faith. In that moment I experienced the chills and felt seen by God.
The hope and feeling scene from my time with the coach was very impactful for me. However, the bigger question that I’ve been thinking through is this idea that we “can have it all”. Gosh this is confusing. “Having it all” in the context of an executive coach is a title, bank account, summer bod, relationships etc.
But I’ve been churning on the idea that I do believe that the Tender God does want us to have it all but it doesn’t look like what the world defines as “it all.” Yet I’m not sure what it all means in the realm of God's kingdom. What I know is that society (my coach) and the American Marketing machine completely skews the lens in which we all view “having it all.” Yet I do deeply believe that God offers us to have it all in relationship with Him. It’s not defined by prosperity but it’s an invitation to hearing His voice and being in tune with His heart. It’s an invitation to learn, grow and explore what His possibilities are and how we can enter that. It requires tuning out the media and opening up to listing and curiosity. I hope you'll join me in this hopeful mission of learning and growing in what God has for us and the holiday by the sea that he offers.
Lars Lider
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