Never Give up..

How many times have you heard that phrase? It pops up periodically on my igoogle desktop app. I always get encouraged when I see it.  So many times in my life I have had to wait and wait and wait. With more than 6 decades under my belt.. I can remember things I have  hoped for 40 or 50 years.. Wow! That is hard for me to take in. Our sense of time and our perspective on waiting are very different from God’s. He is eternal and He is not in time. 50 years to Him is nothing.. He created time..imagine that!

So when we wait for something for a year, 5 years, 10 years or more..that does not mean we are to give up and believe that it will never happen. How do we continue to have hope? By trusting that the one who created us and gave us desires will bring them to completion..in His time not ours. It is reassuring to realize that every single thing that God intended for us on this side of eternity will come to pass if we don’t give up..if we don’t walk away..if we follow Him around every corner..through every dark tunnel..holding on as He takes us on detours and leads us into unknown territory.

Life with God is an adventure.. adventures are not always easy..they are often risky. If you are waiting and waiting..keep it up. Trust Him..remember His goodness..keep holding on..don’t give up. Here’s one of my favorite verses..from Psalm 27. It is for you!

“Wait for the LORD;
    be courageous and let your heart be strong.
    Wait for the LORD.”

A year ago

Last spring I wrote about my mom and how she suffered a femur fracture that changed everything for her and for me. It is hard to believe that a year has passed..she is still with us..unable to walk..and in a wheelchair..almost blind. I grapple with all the feelings that her life triggers in me. I don’t want to end up like her..my own mortality is always before me..the aging process is more real than it ever was. I wonder how long she will hang on.

We don’t face death in our culture..we avoid it and we run from it. We act like it won’t happen to us or to anyone we love..and then it does. No one can escape the inevitability of it all. We were not created  to embrace it..it is terribly painful and our hearts break..we never get used to the idea of it..we are all afraid..even if we live in denial. I’m sure that Mom is afraid but she won’t talk about it..it is still too hard..even at 89. As for me..I’ve been close to it many times..no, I am not used to it either. The only thing that stands between me and all that fear of the unknown is the certainty of God. I won’t be alone..He will be with me..and with you and with my mom.

Are you afraid? Is your heart weighed down by things that you cannot control? Is someone close to you suffering? Are you? I don’t have all the answers for you..no one does. Our hope has to be in the sovereignty of our God.. In His goodness..His amazing faithfulness..His life in us..His promises and His grace. He is reaching out to us and promising to take us all the way to the end of our lives here and into the new place He has prepared for us.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

False Starts

I have been experiencing many of these in the last year or so. Here’s what it looks like. I have a deep longing to move forward..to do something new..to follow God in a greater way. The next thing I know I get a glimpse of what this might look like and I begin walking toward what looks like a new destination. On the way to that place I start to realize that something is wrong. My passion and vision begin to fade and I know that it is another false start..I stop and wonder why it keeps happening.

Yesterday God began to shine His light into this process. He showed me that all my intentions were good..that the ideas were good and that my desire was good. So what was going wrong? Have you figured it out yet? Suddenly I knew what I was doing..trying to find my own way..directing my own steps..relying on my ideas and plans. He intervened to remind me that this  is not the abundant life. My plans are not bad..they are not sinful..they are not evil..they are not the same as His. Don’t miss that last sentence. We can settle for something good when God has something absolutely better for us if we wait.

All of these reminders add up to one thing. We live in His kingdom by waiting on Him..living fully in the present and trusting Him to unfold His perfect plan for us. It sounds simple but it is truly challenging..especially in a world that continually reinforces the idea that we are masters of our own destiny. I want the absolute best that God has to offer and if that means waiting and waiting and waiting than so be it. His ways are deeper and richer than anything I could ever dream up in my most creative moments. After all He is the one who set the heavens in place and He is the one who created us in His image. He is our rescuer and our deliver..His grace is beyond measure.

 “God has made everthing beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so , people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”