The chair sits in my bedroom. It can best be described as a high-backed, Queen Ann chair, I think. It is burgundy with some diamondish design lightly imprinted on it. The foot rest kicks out and makes a comfy spot for my legs and feet. The always nearby pile of fleece blankets is within reach, so as I climb into the chair, I grab a blanket or two.
After adjusting the covers just so, I kick out the foot rest and my always aching back settles perfectly into the lumbar portion of the chair. On the left side of the chair stands a lamp that I bought a few years ago. The light is just right for reading. Not too bright, not too dull. While the base of the lamp is stationary, the top arm swings to perfect adjustment. I pull the arm to the exact right spot to help me read.
The floor on the right side of the chair sports a woven basket. The colors match the room in burgundy and hunter green. The basket is large. It has a handle on each end, but the basket is never moved or picked up. It is completely off limits to all other people or animals. The basket is not special. Instead, the contents of the basket are what is so important. The basket holds the printed materials for my special meetings. I have meetings every day or two, and I always need to know exactly where to find my materials.
Maybe I settle in the burgundy chair at 9:00 in the morning or 9:00 at night. Sometimes I get there at 2:43 in the afternoon. With four kiddos and a busy house, each day dictates a different meeting time, but I've learned to be flexible with the schedule. It's okay with me, and probably with my prayer partner, too.
I reach into my basket and pull out a few things. First, I get out the devotional book that I am currently using. Right now it is simply called Truth. I like it. Each day aligns what the world thinks with what God thinks. Refreshing. Next, I pull out my journal. In this, I write my deepest thoughts, fears, prayers, concerns, joys, and anything else that strikes me. Then I pull out my personal Bible. You know what I mean? The kind with a leather cover, my name inscribed on the front, with pages that turn, words that I can underline, and margins in which I can write. There will be no electronic technology used during this meeting. None. Absolutely none. My prayer partner and I don't need anything like that to communicate. He's already there waiting for me to get started.
After reading through my devotional thoughts for the day, I turn in my personal Bible to the place where I left off yesterday. Currently I'm ready about Elijah and Elisha. Quite a pair! God never ceases to amaze me with his super powers. Beats anything I've seen from Superman, that's for sure! I read in my Bible until a specific thought or detail jumps off the page to me. When it does, I find a quick stopping place and pull out my journal.
My journal is hard-backed, lined, with heavy spiral binding. I can't remember how many I've used up, but I keep them all and just keep writing. You know about writing, don't you? You hold the pen in your hand and apply pressure to make the ink come out on the page. I do this to my journal. I write all over it. I express myself on the pages. However, the pages aren't written to Dear Ann or Dear Abby. Instead, I write my journal thoughts, questions, prayers and concerns to my dear Lord. Sometimes He answers me right then. Sometimes He guides me to more reading of His Word. Sometimes, much to my chagrin, He tells me to wait. One thing I know for sure, He always has the right answer at the right time.
The best thing of all about these meetings is something quite simplistic. The more I go to my meeting spot and spend time with my prayer partner, the more things I hear Him say and the more I know that He is real in my every day life. The Counselor isn't just with me in my meetings in the burgundy chair. He goes with me from that spot to the next and the next and the next. However, I refuel in that chair. I get filled up. I take the fuel with me to make it through the next thing on the agenda. Most of the time I don't just make it through, rather, I soar through it. I've been so filled up I just fly past most of the trouble, shed it off like water from a duck's back, and move on. If I go too long without another meeting, everything starts bothering me. Nothing is easy to rid myself of. I carry burdens that aren't even real.
Thus, I try to have meetings as often as possible. These times are a necessity to me. They are my daily lifeline. They keep me sane. They keep me full. They keep me content. They keep me focused. These times grow my faith. These times grow my patience. These times grow my love. These times are necessary. I can only thank my prayer partner for all of these things. He makes my meetings worth every second and beyond.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Why Wait
Isaiah 30:18: Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
The other day I heard a radio commercial about how far we have technologically advanced in just the past 10 years. Ten years ago if you had e-mail and the internet, you had to wait a considerable amount of time for the dial-up service connection. Ten years ago texting didn't exist. Ten years ago there were no USB ports. And the list went on and on.
The faster the pace of our world, technology, drive-thru meals, and all modern conveniences, the harder it is for us to learn the key to waiting. For the past six months I have felt like God has had me in a holding pattern, of sorts. My emotions have gone from anticipation to frustration. I have felt like God has been grooming me for something yet to come, but I haven't been privy to the knowledge of what God is really doing in my life.
To me, six months has seemed like a long time. However, compared to the wait that some endure, it is a short, short time. Some people wait for years for a loved one's salvation or return from war or far away places. Some wait for years to be reunited with lost family. The Israelites waited forty years to see the promised land.
Waiting is not an easy task. However, I am praying that I will continue to learn the secret of being content, no matter how long the wait. Psalm 130:5 says, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I put my hope."
I think I finally understand one of the concepts of waiting. It is in the ACT of waiting that God IS doing his amazing work. The answers to prayer don't always come at the end of the wait. Many of them come IN the wait. It is when we ARE waiting that we learn to trust God fully. It is during this time of waiting that God shows himself to be our provider, sustainer, and he is enough. It isn't the answer at the end of the wait that is the end of our problem. That is simply another of God's blessings on us. The REAL blessing is gained in the day-to-day grind of the holding patterns of our lives when God shows up in the mundane things to prove himself. He is really all we need. We don't need that thing for which he is grooming us. We just need him.
Psalm 40:1-3 says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."
We all know that the anticipation of Christmas is bigger than the actual day that we celebrate the Lord's birth. The month preceding December 25 is full of opportunities to celebrate the reason we give gifts, share times with family and friends, and decorate our homes. During that month, we may hang lights, put up a tree, work through an Advent calendar, attend parties, and wear festive clothes. These things are all done during the wait. What would Christmas look like if we didn't do the wait of Christmas? It would seem lacking, for sure. On Christmas day, many of us spend time eating good food and opening gifts. But by the end of that day, or surely the next, we are ready to take down the tree, put away the lights, and get back to normal, every day life. The anticipation and the wait don't just make the day of Christmas special, the wait itself is special.
And that is surely how Mary and Joseph felt when they knew they were going to be the parents of the Messiah. It wasn't just about the price Jesus would pay on the cross through his death and resurrection. Every day from the moment the angel spoke to Mary about the immaculate conception to the day Mary joined Jesus in heaven, the Lord was working in her time of waiting. And every day in our lives, he is working and moving while we feel we are just waiting.
So, why wait? Because waiting IS the real work of life. During the wait, God is proving, over and ove,r that he is in control. He is God. He is enough.
The other day I heard a radio commercial about how far we have technologically advanced in just the past 10 years. Ten years ago if you had e-mail and the internet, you had to wait a considerable amount of time for the dial-up service connection. Ten years ago texting didn't exist. Ten years ago there were no USB ports. And the list went on and on.
The faster the pace of our world, technology, drive-thru meals, and all modern conveniences, the harder it is for us to learn the key to waiting. For the past six months I have felt like God has had me in a holding pattern, of sorts. My emotions have gone from anticipation to frustration. I have felt like God has been grooming me for something yet to come, but I haven't been privy to the knowledge of what God is really doing in my life.
To me, six months has seemed like a long time. However, compared to the wait that some endure, it is a short, short time. Some people wait for years for a loved one's salvation or return from war or far away places. Some wait for years to be reunited with lost family. The Israelites waited forty years to see the promised land.
Waiting is not an easy task. However, I am praying that I will continue to learn the secret of being content, no matter how long the wait. Psalm 130:5 says, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I put my hope."
I think I finally understand one of the concepts of waiting. It is in the ACT of waiting that God IS doing his amazing work. The answers to prayer don't always come at the end of the wait. Many of them come IN the wait. It is when we ARE waiting that we learn to trust God fully. It is during this time of waiting that God shows himself to be our provider, sustainer, and he is enough. It isn't the answer at the end of the wait that is the end of our problem. That is simply another of God's blessings on us. The REAL blessing is gained in the day-to-day grind of the holding patterns of our lives when God shows up in the mundane things to prove himself. He is really all we need. We don't need that thing for which he is grooming us. We just need him.
Psalm 40:1-3 says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."
We all know that the anticipation of Christmas is bigger than the actual day that we celebrate the Lord's birth. The month preceding December 25 is full of opportunities to celebrate the reason we give gifts, share times with family and friends, and decorate our homes. During that month, we may hang lights, put up a tree, work through an Advent calendar, attend parties, and wear festive clothes. These things are all done during the wait. What would Christmas look like if we didn't do the wait of Christmas? It would seem lacking, for sure. On Christmas day, many of us spend time eating good food and opening gifts. But by the end of that day, or surely the next, we are ready to take down the tree, put away the lights, and get back to normal, every day life. The anticipation and the wait don't just make the day of Christmas special, the wait itself is special.
And that is surely how Mary and Joseph felt when they knew they were going to be the parents of the Messiah. It wasn't just about the price Jesus would pay on the cross through his death and resurrection. Every day from the moment the angel spoke to Mary about the immaculate conception to the day Mary joined Jesus in heaven, the Lord was working in her time of waiting. And every day in our lives, he is working and moving while we feel we are just waiting.
So, why wait? Because waiting IS the real work of life. During the wait, God is proving, over and ove,r that he is in control. He is God. He is enough.
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