Meet Me in the Middle

Last week, I traveled to Washington DC for one meeting. Usually the folks with whom I was meeting come to Philadelphia and I thought I would return the favor and go to them. What sounded like a gracious gesture when we planned it, felt a little less wonderful with a 5:00am wakeup and hours of bumper to bumper Beltway traffic before I even had a cup of coffee. As we pulled onto the street of our DC destination, CLI Headquarters called to let me know my Capitol friends had just arrived at our Philadelphia office for the meeting. I was livid. My kind and gracious gesture was a colossal waste of time. After a bathroom break and a coffee, I calmed myself down and began the trek back north to meet somewhere in the middle. It was an innocent and understandable mistake, but the adventure kicked off an unhealthy train of thought. As I tracked my mileage, I began to track all the the distance I believe I go to help others. The problem with my accounting was that it failed to include any of the distance that others travel to meet me where I am. As a leader, do I have a one-way focus on the effort being displayed, especially when things don’t go the way I plan? My friends traveled the same distance, we just missed each other. We had the same goal and yet different destinations. In my relationship with the Lord, do I fall into the same trap? How often do I feel like I am making all of the effort because He doesn’t show up where I hoped He would? Perhaps I need to come to the Lord in prayer as He seeks me…just where I am.