Pain. We’ve feel it in the disappointment life often brings. And though we do our best to process its stinging presence past the point of acceptance, sometimes we feel too broken to put forth the required courage. Whether the rottenness of pain is brought by the words of the traitorous friend…
I really love this guy’s posts…
Plus, this is the spot I’ve been in for the past couple of months and he really just puts it out there. Broken… But better!
“There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust
This is a place where I don’t feel alone
This is a place where I feel at home
Out in the garden where we planted the seeds
There is a tree that’s old as me
Branches were sewn by the color of green
Ground had arose and passed its knees
By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top
I climbed the tree to see the world
When the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
And I built a home
For you
For me”
-Cinematic Orchestra [To Build a Home]-
love.
You may have read the title of this piece and smirked because I’ve mentioned I’m single and have had a number of failed relationships in the past. But the truth is I know how to treat a woman. And because I think treating a woman the right way is something every man should know, I’m sharing my…
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land [1 Kings 17:7]
Week after week, with an unwavering and steadfast spirit, Elijah watched the brook dwindle and finally dry up. Often tempted to stumble in unbelief, he nevertheless refused to allow his circumstances to come between himself and God. Unbelief looks at God through the circumstances, just as we often see the sun dimmed by clouds or smoke. But faith puts God between itself and its circumstances, and looks at them through Him.
Elijah’s brook dwindled to only a silver thread, which formed pools at the base of the largest rocks. The the pools evaporated, the birds flew away, and the wild animals of the fields and forests no longer came to drink, for the brook became completely dry. And only then, to Elijah’s patient and faithful spirit, did the word of the Lord come.
Most of us would have become anxious and tired, and would have made other plans long before God spoke. Our singing would have stopped as soon as the stream flowed less musically over its rocky bed. We would have hung our harps on the willows nearby and begun pacing back and forth on the withering grass, worrying about our predicament. And probably, long before the brook actually dried up, we would have devised some plan, asked God to bless it, and headed elsewhere.
God will often extricate us from the mess we have made, because “his love endures forever” Yet if we had only been patient and waited to see the unfolding of His plan, we would never have found ourselves in such an impossible maze, seeing no way out. We would also never have had to turn back and retrace our way, with wasted steps and so many tears of shame.
“Wait for the LORD” [Psalm 27:14] Patiently wait!
-Streams in the Desert-
Be still, sad soul! lift up no passionate cry, but spread the desert of your being bare to the full searching of the All-seeing eye; Wait! and through dark misgiving, deep despair, God will come down in pity and fill the dry dead place with light, life, and springlike air.”
[John Campbell Shairp]
“God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.” [Lamentations 3:25-26]
I love one of the ways that the word “waiting” is defined in the dictionary. The verb waiting can be defined as “in attendance, as upon a royal personage”
This definition speaks of something more, something bigger than just a passage of time, just sitting around until something expected happens. I just finished Beth Moore’s Esther bible study a few weeks ago (I would recommend it to anyone—it’s one of her best) and one of the biggest themes is what God is doing behind the scenes that you can’t see.
In my own life I have definitely struggled with this idea of waiting, of really trusting that God has something under control. I tend towards action, and as someone who can also be impulsive and emotional this can really get me into trouble. As I was going through some really tough stuff a few months ago, there were times where I got down on my knees in my room and just literally cried to God “what do you want me to do?” And sure enough, God’s answer? Nothing.
NOTHING?
“So let’s get this straight, God…you want me to do nothing? I can’t just do nothing!”
I would challenge you to think of a harder request than that. When you’re doing nothing, the minutes inch by. A day seems like an eternity. Time seems wasted and every opportunity to grasp some sort of control of the situation seems to slip from your fingers.
But, here’s the truth. When God asks you to do nothing, it’s because He is up to something. In Esther, Beth offers this idea that when we are waiting for something, it is not really the thing that we are waiting for. We are waiting on God. We are waiting on our Creator, the Almighty, the one who holds the entire world in His hands, who knew us since the beginning of time and knows where each of our steps is going to lead us. So, next time God makes this impossible request of us to do nothing, remember that He is surely up to something.
So we aren’t just waiting, we are in attendance of royalty—for our King acts on our behalf, and he always does exactly what needs to be done at exactly the right time.
*title lyrics: Fleet Foxes [Montezuma]
“You get glory in the midst of this, and You’re walking with me. And you say I am blessed because of this, so I choose to believe: As I carry this cross, You’ll carry me…
…and I know your promises are faithful. And God, I’ve seen your goodness in my life. And oh I’ve found your mercy is a river, your love is an ocean wide.
Audrey Assad [Carry Me]
Living a life of faith often requires us to leave things alone.
If we have completely entrusted something to God, we must keep our hands off it. He can guard it better than we can, and He does not need our help.
Things in our lives may seem to be going all wrong, but God knows our circumstances better than we do. And He will work at the perfect moment, if we will completely trust Him to work in His own way and His own time. Often there is nothing as godly as inactivity on our part, or nothing as harmful as restless working, for God has promised to work his sovereign will.
-Streams in the Desert-
