When You and God Don't See Eye to Eye

Have you ever found one of those temporary cartoon tattoos for children in a cereal box?  Bella and I found one over the weekend and the picture was of characters from a movie she really enjoys.  I sat her up on the kitchen counter so I could be close to the sink to get water to wet the sponge I needed to use to apply it to her arm.

First, I squinted at the tiny directions written on the back of the package.  Why do they have to print things so small these days?  I peeled the protective film from the front of the tattoo and placed it face down on her arm and started pressing the wet sponge against the backing to get the picture to release and attach to her arm.  Her little eyes filled up with tears as she looked down at what I was doing.  She saw a white rectangle of paper with the directions printed all over it instead of the picture she had imagined was going to be there. "No! No!", she cried and she tried to pull her arm back. This was not what she wanted at all!

"It's OK, Bella.  This is how I need to do it.  You need to be still and trust me so you won't mess this up.  The picture will be there in a minute", I reassured her.  

To her credit, she stopped crying and watched me intently as I continued the process.  After a few seconds, I barely pulled back one edge just so she could see that the colors were beginning to be transferred to her skin.  I kept applying pressure and dabbing the sponge on the paper until the entire backing was wet and the picture on the other side was totally complete and visible. Then I removed the paper and let her see the finished product. She beamed up at me and started talking about one character that was her favorite.

How often do we do this very thing with God?  We have a dream - a picture of something we want to see in our lives.  We know exactly how it should look.  It will unfold in a certain way, on a particular timetable, marking specific milestones along the way.  Then, when life starts veering off in another direction we panic.  "God, this isn't how it's supposed to be!"

God hears us saying, "I'm supposed to be marrying this person, but now they've left me", or "We were supposed to have children by now, but we're having fertility issues", or "By now, I should have had a promotion at work", or "I should be further along in ministry at this point in my life", or any one of a hundred other things that we thought should be coming to pass.  

We don't see as God sees.  He says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways."  (Isaiah 55:8) We look upon what is happening in our lives - at what God seems to be applying to our situation - and we're disappointed, scared, hurt, and so sure that God has really missed it.  This wasn't what we prayed for, believed for, stood for, declared and decreed.  Or was it?

Isaiah 46:9-10 says,

"Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’

If we will do as I told Bella and be still and trust Him through the process, we may find that the picture He is applying to us is far more beautiful than the one we had imagined.  

We will find Ephesians 3:20-21 to be true if we wait on Him. 

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

A Joyful Grave

         

I witnessed a powerful baptism service this morning.  Many people were baptized for the first time as they professed their new relationship with Jesus. Others took that plunge in a demonstration of a new commitment after a time of spiritual brokenness.  Some people were drawing a symbolic line in the sand to mark a day when things would change in their lives and their ministries. The service went long after the usual time that we dismissed, and I needed a bathroom break! But as we watched the Holy Spirit working so powerfully, my husband leaned over and said to me, "You can't leave the room during a funeral service!"

It took me just a second to adjust to what he was saying, but Colossians 2:12 says it pretty much that way. " ...having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."

We were watching a series of burials. Old lives, old attitudes, old struggles, old obstacles were being put away - not just covered up and ignored - but being healed and transformed.

At the end of the service, we watched the ushers prepare the portable baptistry before moving it. Paul said, "Look, they're putting the lid on the coffin..."  - another wise observation from my always witty husband. Baptism is a grave where Jesus buries our past. Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

The joy in the house this morning was evident.  Jesus is still moving, still changing lives, still intervening in circumstances.  I hope you are in a place where you witness this freedom taking place in those around you, but more than that, I pray freedom and joy are abundant in your own life. If not, maybe it's time to bury some things of your own.

 

The Timing of God

My son, Josh, made the following observation on Facebook yesterday and I told him I was going to borrow it for today's blog post.

"You can be the best hunter in the world, but if there are no deer where you are then it doesn't matter.  You can be the best hunter in the world, but if you arrive in the field at the wrong time then it doesn't matter.  You may feel your God-given talents are pointless and wasted. Remember that you may be waiting to be in the right place and season." (Joshua Ellis)

When I read this, I thought of Joseph, being given dreams of ruling over his brothers, only to find himself in a prison cell in Egypt.  All the promises of God seemed to be made null and void. He was not in a position to even imagine all God still had in store for him.  He had to wait for the right season.

I thought of David, being anointed to be king over Israel, running for his life as he fled from King Saul.  Did he question the truth of Samuel the prophet's words over him as a young boy as he faced all the adversity? In God's timing, he took his rightful place.

There are some seasons in our lives that are extremely frustrating.  Sometimes we wonder where God is in the middle of our troubles.  There was a period of about four years in my life when we were under extreme financial stress.  We had just moved to Virginia and my husband was only able to find temporary work.  Within a few months, he developed some health issues that kept him from working at all.   We were paying a mortgage payment on the house in West Virginia that we were trying to sell as well as a rent payment in our new home.  There were times when our grocery budget was less than $25 a week.  From a spiritual standpoint, we were doing all we knew how to do, but month after month, things grew more difficult.  During that time, through all the ups and downs, my faith in God grew in a way that it never had before.  It's easy to trust God when life is going well - a real challenge when circumstances are burdensome.  I wouldn't want to go through that series of events ever again in my life, but I wouldn't go back and change a single thing about that time because God became even sweeter to me in the middle of all of it.  I learned to trust and I watched as He provided my needs in ways that even today, I don't fully understand.

I wrote on my church's Facebook page one day in the worst of the financial mess that I was in:

"I have learned so much in the last year about faith and patience, about waiting on God, about trusting His timing.  There are situations that I wanted Him to handle differently, but now I can see the "why" of the way things have played out - the other people He wanted to bless in a situation that I thought was mine alone.  Everything we need God to do in our lives also touches the lives of others.  Only He sees the big picture.  Thank God that He IS God."

The seven years of waiting to sell that West Virginia house ended up being a blessing to the family who purchased it while it taught me to wait and trust.  A car that we wanted to sell when it became too difficult to maintain two vehicles finally sold to someone in our church who needed it at just the right time for him - weeks after I thought it should have already been sold.  God's timing is perfect though we may not always agree with how it unfolds.  It's not all about us - it's about Him.

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Whether you are waiting for a financial breakthrough, a ministry opportunity, a restored relationship, a healed body or for an outlet for all your gifts and talents to be used or noticed, waiting on the timing of the Lord is the sure way to know that all is being done His way and for His glory.


Photo by Jim Fawns from Pexels

Practice What You Preach

This summer our family rented a house on the Chesapeake Bay for our vacation.  On the street leading to the house was a set of speed bumps.  Our granddaughter loved going over them and started raising her hands every time we approached one.  Before long, everyone in the car was raising their hands and a tradition was created.  It wasn't long before she had us raising our hands as we crossed railroad tracks, went through tunnels, and even turned into our street, where there is a rough section of pavement.  It's become such a family ritual that my husband and I do it when she's not even in the van.  (I know - we're weird....) 

If we ever forget to do it, Bella reminds all of us as we approach the landmark.  "Put your hands up, Mommy.  Put your hands up, Daddy. Mawmaw, Papaw - put your hands up!"

Today in the van, we went through an area behind a store where there were ten speed bumps and later in the trip three railroad tracks and the street to our house. Bella was so busy telling all of us to put our hands up that most of the time she forgot to raise her own.

I think we can be like that sometimes in our spiritual lives.  We give advice or encouragement to others, but sometimes we don't do the very thing we've just told them to do. It's easy to just say what we think is the right thing based on our own experience or biblical knowledge.  We can reduce navigating our journey to a formula of a verse or two of scripture and a pre-packaged prayer when what needs to happen is that we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit both in our own lives and as we minister to others.

Even in the life of a Spirit-filled believer, ritual and tradition can overtake the fresh, living, direction of the Spirit of God if we are not careful to maintain that connection.

I'm glad Bella finds such joy in very simple things, but I hope that she'll remember to focus on her own behavior and not on that of others as she grows and matures. The old adage "practice what you preach" is still good advice. Examine yourself with me and make sure that's exactly what you are doing.