Are You Willing to Wait Upon The Lord?

I had, what some would consider, major surgery very recently; therefore the limitations on what I can and cannot do are pretty tight.  For a control…hmm, how can I put it politely? I don’t know…maybe I can just define my condition as found in the online dictionary.  I am “one who has an obsessive need to exert control over people and situations.”  Yep, that’s me, alright!  Needless to say, being restricted on what I can do is very frustrating to someone like me because it reduces my ability to control things/people.

I depend on my husband and two young sons for pretty much anything and I’m not liking it much.  I am used to doing things myself and in the rare instance that I ask any of the other inhabitants of this house to do something for me, if they don’t do it right away, I do it myself.  “I was going to do that!” Is my husband’s recurrent statement as he helplessly watches me doing what I asked him to do a minute ago.  “I just needed to finish this thing…” He would try to explain only to hear me say,  “It’s OK.  I was here, no problem,” as my rather curt response. 

Right now, however, I can’t just do it myself.  I have to actually wait for them to do what I require in their own timing and that is driving me crazy.

I like my own timing.  What’s wrong with it, I wonder? I see a need.  Something has to be done right away, why not just do it then?  That way we can just forget about it, not have it hanging over our heads and move on!  The garbage needs taken out, well, take it out now!  Toys need picked up, well, pick them up now!  The sink is full of dirty dishes, let’s not wait until we have no clean glasses and wash them now!  I can go on and on and on, but what’s the point?

The point is that my impatience and relentless need for control get in the way of me allowing the Holy Spirit to grow His fruits in me.  The point is that perhaps, my current situation is a God-sent so I can begin to learn to sit back, relax and wait upon the Lord and let Him be God in me.  The point is that this is the time the Lord has given me to not only receive His grace but to extend it to those around me in the same abundant manner He extends it to me. 

It is time for me to “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him,” as He reminds us in Psalm 37: 7a.  There is, indeed “a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1)  Right now it is the time for me to wait for God and others to do what they are supposed to do without me pushing them or driving them crazy!  It is the time for me to heal and to grow.  It is the time for me to let others wait on me and exercise their own call to servant hood in me.  It is the time for me to be still and see how “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11)

I will eventually recover my strength and will be able to reassume my normal activities.  I do pray, however, that the “normal” is a new one.  I pray that in this “new normal” I meet my beloved at a point of grace where we can wait for God’s revelation together.

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy this time as much as I can.  This is the time that He has appointed for me to marvel at His glorious favor and bask in His inexhaustible grace.

“For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
    it speaks of the end
    and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
    it will certainly come
    and will not delay.” Habakkuk 2: 3

How about you?

Are you a person who needs to be in control of situations?

Has the Lord put you in a situation that you can’t control?

How did you deal with that?

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May the Healer Be Revealed

Driving down my favorite way to work one morning I heard a short devotional on the radio that was about when there isn’t much more one can do but to ask for God to “show up.” The brief meditation referred to those moments when darkness overcomes us, when the situation is too much for us to bear, when the hurt is too painful. It is in those moments when we are left with no means of our own and all we can do in our brokenness is to cry out to Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to us in a mighty and visible way.

I was very touched by the words and the Holy Spirit promptly moved me to action.  I immediately began to pray for the Lord to be revealed in my loved ones today.  I began to pray for Him to “show up.” 

I walk surrounded by wounded souls and broken spirits.  Insecurities, confusion and unanswered “whys” blur our vision and keep us from seeing His glory divine all around.  This is the moment to breathe and beg for Him to show His glory, even here, like the beautiful song by Mercy Me called “The Hurt and the Healer” say.    He sure can “breathe us back to live.”  He is the only One who can.

He breathes us back to life even when we are not even noticing.  He does show up even if we are not paying attention.  He reveals Himself daily in small details as well as in awesome wonders.  He shows up in the beauty of a summer afternoon that brightens the soul that is clouded by sorrow.  He shows up in the laughter of little children who play unaware of the hurt inside.  He shows up in the perfect song on the radio that lifts us up when we need to be picked up.  He shows up in the warm embrace of a friend and in the kind words of someone who cares.  Above all, He shows up, He reveals Himself to His own in His Word. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1: 1-5)

We may, however, miss His revelation if we lose our focus.  Like Peter, if we turn our eyes to the storm rather than keep them on the Lord, the waves overcome us and we sink.  While immerse in those moments of pain so deep that we can hardly move, the one thing we should not do is to sever our communication with the Most High.  The truth is that He has never left us, even when we don’t feel His presence.  He is always with us even when our feelings deceive us.  He never leaves us even if we can’t experience His revelation. 

Praying the Word of God while we wait in Him is imperative.  Prayer is what keeps the line of communication open as we wait for the Healer to reveal Himself, wipe away our tears and erase our pain.  Praying for Him to “show up” keeps us plugged into the outlet of His mighty power and allows us to be tuned in so we don’t miss Him when He does show up. 

The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. (1 Samuel 3: 21)

In a Little While

Dylan doesn’t like to see me leave the house.  He’s always been the one to start crying and begging for me to stay every time he sees any movement that signals me leaving for an errand.  “Please, Mama, stay.  Don’t go!”  Dylan’s words are always met with my standard reply, “Don’t worry; I’ll be back in a little while.”  However, he usually counters with, “Can I come with you?”  To which I respond, “No, you can’t.  It won’t take long.  I’ll be back soon.  You’ll be fine.  I’ll be back in a little while.”  Now, as he struggles to comprehend the concept of time, he is adding to his repertoire the question, “but, what is a little while?”  I haven’t really come up with a good answer for that yet.  Often I just say things like, “a little while is kind of like 2 or 3 episodes of…The Wonder Pets or The Backyardigans?!” (or any other TV show that he enjoys watching)  This is not a very satisfactory answer or explanation for what “a little while” might mean, but at least it keeps him occupied on trying to figure out how long does one episode of his favorite show feels like.  This distraction gives me a few seconds to escape out the door unnoticed.

This common occurrence at my house makes me think of John chapter 16.  In it, Jesus is talking to His disciples about the trials that they will soon begin to go through  Our Lord explains to His beloved friends how He needs to go away so the Spirit of Truth would come to them as their personal compass for the life to come.  Jesus then says to them, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” (John 16:16)  To this, the disciples wonder among themselves, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” (John 16:18)  They were nervous about the prospect of not having Jesus with them anymore.  It didn’t matter if it was supposed to be just for a “little while.”  The disciples became anxious just thinking about Jesus not being there with them.  Like us, we crave His presence more than anything.  Life’s hardship is bearable only if we perceive His presence going before us.  No wonder the disciples were worried. 

Jesus then proceeded to reassure His followers by telling them what to expect in the near future and of the limitless joy they would experience after their trials because they have believed that He came from the Father, and how the Father would give them anything they ask in Jesus’ name.  Jesus then wrapped it up by saying to His friends, those whom He had chosen, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

He has overcome the world and He is our peace.  That sense of stability and serenity doesn’t derive from our circumstances.  Peace is the person of Jesus Christ; and by giving us His Holy Spirit, He gives us His peace.  He had to leave so we would be able to have Him within us always.  It is one of the many Biblical paradoxes that twist the brain in nuts of mystery which will only be deciphered when we meet Him face to face some day.  In the meantime, we rest assured in His faithfulness and in His truth.  We keep busy while we wait; and we delight in His peace.  For now, even though, just like Dylan, we can’t fully grasp the meaning of God’s time; we rest on His promise that He’ll be back in “a little while.”