It’s Worth It To Do The Hard Things

I have been having a lot of conversations with YHWH (God) lately about my blog and my writing. I told him that I feel like this what he wants me to do, but that I need his help to figure it all out because I am still learning how to do this.

This is a conversation that I think a lot of us who are trying to do what he says have with him. Following him and keeping his Torah is not the norm. When you add an unconventional career path such as working for yourself in your own small business, people think you’re downright crazy.

My Realization

Back at the end of January, I quit my job as a daycare teacher due to a toxic work environment.

For months before I quit, and even a little bit after, I was submitting application after application to any job I could find that wouldn’t break God’s Law. I got one interview and a job offer at another daycare. I turned it down because I didn’t feel like YHWH wanted me to work there.

About a month ago, I realized that I wasn’t supposed to look for another job, daycare or otherwise. He reminded me that I had a web domain that I had been hanging onto for about two years and I hadn’t done anything with it.

So, instead of submitting applications and scrolling through job sites with tears of frustration rolling down my face, I got work building https://cassandrastinger.com/.

As I was working, I still had a few moments that were frustrating, but nothing that compared to trying to find another job.

Doing The Hard Things

The day I officially published this blog was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time.

I also started publishing journals through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. I’m even writing a novel.

All of these adventures have brought a joy that I haven’t felt in a long time. The entire process of putting all of these things together was hard, but the things that you must and need to do usually are. If YHWH hadn’t guided me through, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.

The men and women in the Bible who made a commitment to follow what YHWH’s says didn’t have easy lives. Jeremiah got thrown in a pit. Daniel ended up in the lion’s den. Stephen was stoned to death. And there are so many others that did hard things because they loved YHWH and wanted to do what he said.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is from the book of Esther. Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah, was chosen by YHWH to save an entire nation from genocide.

Sometimes the things he tells us to do may not make sense in the moment, but they all always make sense later on down the road.

People will tell you that you’re crazy, but don’t worry about them and what they think of you. Worry about what he has to say to you.

Learning To Listen

With all the noise in this world, if we don’t stop and listen for him, we may never hear what we’re supposed to.

He seeks us out, but we have to be willing to seek him too. And not halfheartedly either, but with everything we have inside of us, searching for him and his truth.

Take sometime today to stop and talk to him. Ask him what the truth is and then be still and listen for what he says.

As believers in him, we have to trust that when he tells us to do something, and that it is for our good. Because as the song says, “He’s Got The Whole World in His Hands”. So why would we doubt the King of The Universe, when he’s been holding onto to us this whole time?

Psalm 143:10

Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Your Spirit is good.
Lead me in the land of uprightness.