Page 199 of Share with Me

“You can always teach violin. Oh wait, the wrist. Bummer.” Matt shook his head. “I think that’s a cop-out, Ivan. Youcanteach. You just won’t find a way. Violin is not the only instrument you play.”

True, but I don’t want to hear that either.

“I can hear you.” Matt was at the door and Ivan was right behind him.

Ivan was going with him to the shops after all. He decided he didn’t want to mope about in Matt’s apartment for the next four or five hours. Better do something to take his mind off his jobless life.

“You can teach piano, right? You said you subbed for your sister.”

“Only for about a month.”

“Music is music, right?”

“There’s a big difference between violin and piano.”

“Really? All I know is that if you can’t play violin, find another instrument or do something else altogether. Life goes on. You know that, but you won’t humble yourself before God to ask for his help to enable you to move on.”

“I’ve asked for His help countless times. Silence is all I get.”

“Could it be because you don’t want answers that don’t match up with your preconceived plans?”

“My plans? Not working so far.”

“Exactly! You forgot Proverbs 3:5-6, the verse Pastor Gonzalez had everyone at church memorize last year, and which you expanded on in our Bible Study back in December. So how about an action plan, dude? Like, maybe: surrender all your plans to God and let Him clean up your mess?”

Ivan didn’t reply.Everywhere I go that verse pops up!

They filed into Matt’s dented and scratched cargo van. He had furniture in the back, but Ivan knew he couldn’t help him unload those with his bad wrist.

His bad wrist.

I’ve got to stop focusing on my bad wrist.

Ivan fastened his safety belt and noticed a three-by-five card duct-taped to the door of the glove compartment. It was Proverbs 16:3.

“‘Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established,’” Matt recited for him. “Read it and think about it.”

Ivan caught two words: works and thoughts.

And began to get it.

If he committed hisworksto God, then God would help line up his thoughts so he could accomplish those works, those plans, those goals.

All right. Something for him to think about.

But first, he had to get a job that matched his skills. Working in Matt’s shop was only temporary.

Oh. There it is again: work.

Silently, Ivan prayed in his heart and surrendered his career to God.

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