To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change. Resentments cannot be held with the same tenacity when we enter his gracious light.
– Richard J. Foster
Category: Winter
Somewhere We Know
Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning,
that without listening speaking no longer heals,
that without distance closeness cannot cure.
– Henri Nouwen
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Wait For It…
Sometimes it feels like our dreams and visions are buried under the snows of winter when spring should have shown up by now.
Sometimes it’s very tempting to take things into our own hands and help God out a little. We know what happened when Abraham tried to figure out how to fulfill the promise of fathering a son by his own ingenuity. It resulted in a son who carried and passed on the wounds of rejection his whole life. When the prophet Samuel didn’t show up in time to quell the murmurs of lack of confidence in the leadership of the newly crowned King Saul, the insecure leader panicked and offered the sacrifice himself. The dream became a nightmare right there.
I’m too embarrassed to tell you the things I’ve done in the past to manipulate the fulfillment of a God-given vision. At the root of all of them was an over-developed sense of responsibility and a lack of trust in the goodness of God. I know I’m not the only one. All around me is the evidence of people with good long-term goals employing short-sighted methods. The pragmatism of belief/unbelief can really screw up our lives. How many people have signed up for a mate or a mortgage or a move – or even a cell phone plan – because the “close enough” solution seemed like the way to force a promise to bloom in our timing?
One of the best parts of the story told in the book While He Lay Dying (link here) is this: Picture a young pastor with a vision trying to employ creative methods to get church people, including children, to overcome apathy and unite in love to take the importance of prayer for the Body of Christ seriously. See him making posters, scheduling classes and pinning sign-up sheets in the foyer. Listen for the response. It sounds a bit like a picnic area under snow.
Then picture people reconciling their differences to come together and pray 24 hours a day. See the call to prayer spread to tens of thousands around the world. See little children nagging their parents to pray for Mr. Bruce while he lay in a coma on the verge of death. See the church arising, throwing off the coldness of resignation and melting apathy with love. See God bring about the vision His way. See the message of the power of a God who is still the God of miracles continue to inspire burned-out pastors, disappointed grievers and so many others who have lost sight of hope around the world. Realize all this happened while Bruce did nothing, absolutely nothing. He simply lay on that bed, his life supported by machines and the prayers of thousands, and in that state God fulfilled his dreams.
Waiting is not about being passive. When it’s time we need to run, to fight, to build, to stay awake all night. Waiting is about trusting for God to bring about His promises, His way, in His timing. It’s about standing in the dark like Gideon’s tiny army, feeling somewhat foolish, with a clay pitcher over our torch waiting to smash it. It’s about waiting for the “Now!”
It’s about trust. It’s about faith. God’s long term plans are not about our hard work, ingenuity or gift of the gab. He partners with faith.
Wait for it…
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this.
(Psalm 37:4,5)
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Mid-winter’s Day
Do you remember the story of the ant and the grasshopper? It’s a fable by Aesop about an ant who worked hard storing up provision for the winter and a grasshopper who danced the summer away. It is a tale meant to teach a moral, and it does. Don’t waste the good times because hard times are a-coming. I wonder if we can say the same about not wasting hard times?
My husband pointed out that today is mid-winter, halfway point between winter solstice and the vernal equinox. (I’ve never heard of a play titled “A Mid-winter Night’s Dream” have you?) Obviously the hay is not growing much in these fields near our home and the snow is a bit deep for dancing. Since I am not fond of winter sports and in my lifetime have broken three bones slipping on the ice, I have to work on my attitude toward winter.
The blue-tinged snow and mountains are pretty, I’ll grant you that. In an effort to be always thankful I have also noticed that winter also tends to be the most productive time in my life as far as getting caught up with paperwork, writing, studying, sewing, mending, and inside house repairs are concerned. It’s a time for planning gardens and perusing seed catalogues. It’s a time of waiting and preparing for prosperity. Apparently the Hebrew word for waiting has at its root a picture of braiding a rope. Farmers, fishermen, artisans, and folk festival musicians all need time to get their acts together. Sitting by the fire braiding rope is a good picture of this.
We have been taught to think that we must use good times to prepare for hard times, but I wonder if hard times are not there to help us prepare for good times. Prosperity can be even more difficult to manage well than want. Some, like the ant, live in fear and cannot allow themselves to dance when the evenings are warm. Others, like the grasshopper, accomplish nothing more with their abundance than spending it on their own pleasure. Very few who find themselves with abundance in the form of power know how to handle it wisely — thus the expression, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
I believe the Lord prepares his most trustworthy servants with long seasons of harsh winter to get them to the place where they don’t need sunshine and flowers to live in a place of contented joy. They will not be dependent on ideal circumstances to allay their fears or give them freedom to dance.
For those trained by adversity to trust in God, every day is a beautiful day.
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Shelter
If anything in this world bugs me it’s people who don’t care. Cold-heartedness.
The problem is I succumb to compassion-fatigue too. It takes a certain amount of denial to be able to function and not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of pain in this world. I find myself fleeing not only from cold-heartedness in others, but cold-heartedness in myself. It’s not only threats against our person that make us run to the Lord for refuge. It’s also when the things we judge others for show up in ourselves.
Here’s the thing: you can’t give what you have never received. Without the shelter and warmth and love Jesus provides when we run to him, we have nothing to share. So many sensitive people who do care find their love growing cold and become bitter and hopeless when they don’t leave the frigid environment out there and spend time regularly soaking up God’s love for them in the shelter he provides. It’s not selfish. It’s essential. It’s where our hope lies.
So God has given us two unchanging things: His promise and His oath. These prove that it is impossible for God to lie. As a result, we who come to God for refuge might be encouraged to seize that hope that is set before us. (Hebrews 6:18)
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Don’t Be Afraid
Don’t be afraid, I am with you;
don’t give way, for I am your God.
I strengthen you and I help you;
I uphold you with the right hand
of my justice. (Isaiah 41:10)
Don’t be afraid,
for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name,
you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1)
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Winter Rest
If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.
– John Chrysostom
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Turning Point
Today at 4:03 p.m. Mountain Standard time, we pass a turning point. It’s one I’ve been looking forward to.
After sunset today the light begins to return. From now on the days will no longer grow shorter. They will grow longer.
The sun is returning to the northern lands.
Wait for it.
This is going to be good.
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Into the Gaps
There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.
I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.
Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Charis: Subject to Change 