Friday, March 20, 2020

and waiting some more

We meet deadlines only to wait for the outcome. We are busy and hustling about only to have to wait for the next thing. We wait for results, outcomes and progress. Hurry up and wait is the name of the game so many times. 

Ask any young child and they can tell you, waiting can be torture. They get antsy, impatient and grumpy. But don't we all?

Noah was a man who walked with the Lord, not ran. No hurry. He was a man well acquainted with waiting. I saw this freshly recently in my time in Genesis. You likely know the story. God called Noah to build an ark to house himself, his family and the animals of the world while God judged the wickedness of earth and destroyed it with water. 

I assumed I knew how much waiting this guy did as he spent 150 days with unimaginable rain and water bursting forth outside. The he spent another 150 days as God blew the waters back into place. All the while working to feed, tend and clean an ark full of wild, smelly animals. 

How much longer, Lord? Surely Noah whispered the question more than once. I certainly would have.

But then the real waiting came. The storms had ended. The land was drying. The end was so near. 

Isn't that the hardest time to wait? Almost there. But ugh, still not there. 
A pregnant mama about to burst with baby. So close, so uncomfortable, so prepared. Yet you wait. 
A new job secured. A date set. And still working out the last promised days of an old job. You wait.
An approaching wedding. Preparations complete. Yet you wait.

So much of life is a waiting game. But the hardest moments are probably the last. Waiting in a long line, finally next in line and the cashier walks away to "price check" for the guy in front of you. Ugh so close. 

So Noah waits. After 300 days, now the time must be short. But 40 days pass. He opens a window, did he need air? I would! He sends forth a raven, then a dove. Then another week passes. Then another week passes, another dove flies off his hand. This one returns with hope! Oh the end IS near. But does Noah burst open the door and race down the ramp towards dry land? Nope. "Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him any more." (Genesis 8:12 ESV)

How long was that wait to see if she would return again?
How did he know to wait? How did he do it with what seems such patience?

I honestly think the secret to Noah's patience is the same secret to his unquestioning obedience. He walked with God. (Genesis 6:9 ESV) Noah did not seem to rush through life on to the next thing. He knew something that I often forget. God works in the process, in the waiting, in what seems to be the useless holding pattern. That is where God builds our faith, our trust in Him and our Christlikeness. 

We are so anxious for the end product. God is anxious for our hearts, and that comes through the process not in the end result. Noah knew this and I am praying today that I might remember it as I seek to slow down to walk with God.

Friday, March 13, 2020

my part, his part

An old godly man is approached by his God. God speaks of judgment and fearful things, calling the old man to impossible tasks. He has never seen a boat, especially one that size. And rain? Enough to destroy all living things?

Yet in such a non emotional way, Scripture seems to just state facts in response to this mind-blowing encounter. "he did all God commanded him" (Genesis 6:22, 7:5, 7:9) over and over Noah just does what God commands him to do.

Noah doesn't even ask God the *how* of it all. How will the rain come? How do I even start building an ark? Where will I find the materials? Who will help me?

Plenty of servants with hearts for God do ask for clarification throughout Scripture. But here, with Noah, we see none of that. He simply seems to nod and set about the task he has been assigned, trust that if he does his part then God will do His part.

Oh how I desire that kind of faith!

What has God assigned me to do, to be about? Pray for my children, serve my husband, witness to those He pouts in my path.
So what if I were to just simply do all God has commanded me to do? Not any more, no manipulating, no worrying, no fearfulness, no being too busy or spending too much time on social media. No just simply doing the assignments He has given me.
Then, and this is often the kicker, then just trusting Him to do His part.

Noah didn't have to understand how the rain would come or where to find help. Nope, God obviously gave him sons to help and He would handle where the rain fell from.

We do not need to understand and know all the details of our task or calling in order to put feet to it. We could, like Noah, just trust the Lord and do our part and know that He alone is God and He can fully accomplish His part.

What are called to do in this season? What is YOUR part? What is to be left up to the Lord?
I can pray for my boys, but I cant turn their hearts towards the Lord. I can witness to my neighbor but I can't save her. I can serve my man with joy but I can't make him love me. But God. He redeems, saves, restores, heals. He does above and beyond all that I can ask or imagine. We can trust Him to do His part.

Friday, March 6, 2020

waiting longer for just a few

We pray, cry and beg God on behalf of our children, our marriages, our friends, or neighbors. Where is He in the midst of this crazy, chaotic, torn -up world? We fight, strain and complain our way through the day seeking God to do the impossible but seeing nothing change in the day to day. 

Just as a mama sees tiny changes on the face of her child over the days and weeks of his first year, yet looking back over the old, worn photos years later, the changes are starke and obvious, this is the way our God has chosen to move most often in our lives.

We want the fast, the now, the big. God wants the heart, the healing, the walk. 

Genesis 11:10-26 displays the line from Seth to Abram like a ribbon through time. The men after Seth each fathered a named son within 29-35 years of their life. Everyone mentioned is also noted to have "had other sons and daughters" as well. Seemingly large families that started at a relatively young age compared to preflood and even to their patriarch, Seth, who fathered his first son at 100 years old.

Then there is Terah. Born to his own father at a young 29 years, the youngest father of this line thus far. 

I imagine Terah grows into a man, seeks a wife and attempts to begin his own family, like all those before him. Maybe he was 35 or 40 the first time he wondered why his bride had not concieved. Maybe by the time he was 50 he was wondering if his line would even continue. Another 20 years pass before his wife's middle would round out with child and a son would be born to this couple. Abram, a son. And then two other sons. But Scripture does not tell that Terah, like his grandfathers, would have other sons and daughters. Nope, just three. And at the ripe old age of 70.

Later we learn that Terah was not seeking the Lord, as Joshua tells is in Joshua 24:2. Terah lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. Yet I find his story compelling. All too often, I find myself waiting longer than I want to for more than I think I get. Like Terah, at times I feel like I am waiting twice as long for half as much yet I begging God for the now and the more. 

God is most often working through the wait and the few.

Terah fathered only three sons, one of which became the first patriach in the line of God's chosen people who would be used by God in a most profound way.

What if the seemingly extra long wait... waiting for our marriage to heal, our child to turn to the Lord, our dream to be reality, our illness to heal... what if in that wait and in that few is the walking with God that brings about the healing, the trust, the usefulness for His kingdom that He has stored up for us all along.