Thank you all for the (name removed by moderator)ut.
It is Monday morning, and I still feel a little uneasy about my decision. I am second-guessing myself. Does the fact that I am still feeling uneasy mean anything in regards to discerning God’s will? Is it a form of temptation (I am tempted to call back and say that I changed my mind.) or is it God telling me I did the wrong thing? Thank you for any feedback.
It could be that you don’t like the offer that is being made, and you choose not to subject yourself to the demands it will have in travel. Nothing wrong with that.
You could have reason to believe that the “stress level” involved with the job is greater than most other places and do not wish to jump into a hostile workplace.
But you said it could be stressful – this could be either good or bad. No you don’t want to go where it will drive you nuts; I know that because I went to a place that drove me nuts and I got crazy and locked up and lost my 20 year lucrative career in engineering.
That said, patience that isn’t tested is only in your imagination. Nobody builds up emotional and spiritual gold by staying in places that “feel good”. This is different than being sensitive to the spirit, but I can’t exactly say how that works and I can’t claim that I always know the difference myself in any one situation. But I do claim there is a difference. The carnal (false) self and the spiritual (true) self (made in the image of God) may have different ideas about what feels good, and it can be tough to tease them out.
Kind of like giving to charity. Do you do it to feel good or look good, or to give a person a meal? Who can separate the wheat from the weeds – if we try to determine whether it is “selfish” motives or not, then the calculating mind and ego get back involved and muddies the waters even more. In the presence of potentially conflicting “selfish” v “selfless” motives, I claim it is impossible to completely isolate one as “the real motive” but it is all of them in concert – and to require knowing before acting on it, would prevent any act of charity at all.
So I’m just kind of blah blah blah here maybe, but consider this. Do you get physically strong by sitting in a recliner nearly all day, or by spending some time working out at the gym or doing farm work? Likewise, it is refreshing and comforting to be around people who create a “pleasant environment” but except for the very most toxic environments, a little social, emotional, and even spiritual “garbage” to have to learn to deal with is actually a requirement in order to require, stimulate, and guide spiritual growth and emotional stability in many circumstances.
1 Peter 1:6-7
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
For example, get “vaccinated” by getting exposed to negativity and learning to deal with it, in order to stand up to potential huge negativity in the future. If you ever get thrown into the lion’s den, at least you may have practiced with some angry kitty cats.
Or like a rose. It is most beautiful and fragrant, when fed by the Best Fertilizer – so when people throw that stuff at you, your very nature as a rose assimilates and feeds off of it to make beauty.
My comments are based mostly on the “it might be stressful” part. If it is severe and known, then these are more in general and maybe don’t apply to this decision as much. Today we think that the way to the peace is to find a peaceful world to live in. But that doesn’t even work for Jesus, who said He was “in” the world but not “of” the world. If you can go into an environment with some conflict and not get caught up in it, that could be awesome. But if it’s a thing where you have to “play dirty” or lose out on raises, promotions, etc that’s a different thing entirely.
