BURN YOUR BRIDGES

God has been talking to me for awhile now about burning some bridges and NOT burning others. In my devotional time this morning I came across this:

"Beware the tendency of asking the way when you know it perfectly well. Take the initiative, stop hesitating, and take the first step. Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you...."

Of course, this caught my attention since God has been bringing this theme to my mind over and over. I try not to burn bridges. I try to keep doors open. But there are times when "making it impossible to go back" is a very good thing.

For many years, I was a consultant to long term care facilities, helping them comply with state and federal law. On one crisis management team I was part of, I met a woman who I seemed to really connect with. With two others, we started putting together a home health care company, while we continued to work on the crisis management project. But as we were beginning to end that job, I started seeing things that I knew I could not endorse. At a seminar that two of us were teaching in Lansing, this woman dropped in to say hi, and then billed the organization that hired us with her mileage, despite the fact that our location was on her way to another client, whom she also billed for the same mileage. As I was completing my part of the crisis management project, I wrote a short report summarizing the interventions that had been put in place and my recommendations for continued compliance. It took me an hour to complete, but I was asked to bill out 8 hours, which I refused to do. After additional incidents, I realized that I would continually be asked to compromise...straight up...to lie, cheat, and steal. After seeking God, I pulled out of the health care company, sending a letter that basically burned my bridge to the company.

A few years later, I came across an item on this company in a business journal, listing their revenue in the several millions! I actually felt sick to my stomach. I was going through a divorce, not knowing how I would be able to take care of my daughter, I was broke most of the time, creditors were beginning to call. I went back to my side of the river and looked longingly at the other shore. If I could have, I would have gone back. I am ashamed to say I wanted, desperately wanted, what the other shore held. Thank God, that bridge had been burned. When I think of what I wanted to trade for money......now, THAT really makes me sick to my stomach and sick at heart.

So, for me, the question still remains....What bridges do I still have standing that I need to burn?

But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.--Luke 9:62