So about 7pm the other night I realized I had no blank CD’s lying around and I needed to download a song from my computer to a disc so we could listen to it during Bible study the next evening.   My day had already been quite long and I didn’t really feel like going out, but I got in my car and drove to the Staples office supply store I had been to a hundred times before.

As I got out of my car in the parking lot, I noticed it didn’t seem to be the “usual” Staples crowd.  Lots of families, lots of kids – and it isn’t even “I need school supplies” season.  But I was on a mission, so I walked straight into the store with determination and a plan to get the CD’s and get back home.  The first thing that hit me was a display of outdoor patio furniture. “Hmmmmmm” I said to myself, and briefly wondered when Staples started to sell vinyl chaise lounges and plastic tables.   Well into the store, I noticed aisles of cleaning products, cheap candles and inflatable pool toys.  And then I started to laugh.

Staples had apparently become a Big Lots discount store while I wasn’t paying attention.

There are times in life when we suddenly look up and find ourselves surprised that we’re not where we thought we’d be.  We’re not where we planned to be.  And while sometimes that change requires thoughtful reflection and surrender, other times, it’s just funny.  I think God enjoys showing us new things.  Things we hadn’t thought about before.  Things we hadn’t noticed.   He loves to delightfully surprise us and give us something better than what we thought we were going to get.

I did end up buying my CD’s in that Big Lots store.  A 10 pack for $3.  And I just had to laugh.

Behold I will do a new thing.  Now it shall spring forth.  Shall you not know it?    Isaiah 43:19

I was reading an article on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this week and a quote by one of the oil company officials caught my eye.  Referring to the current attempt to cap the leaking well,  one of them said, “We’re believing it will work, but we’re proceeding as if it won’t”.  They were working on Plan B before they even knew if Plan A was going to succeed.  They either didn’t have a whole lot of faith in Plan A, or they wanted a “just in case” Plan B in their back pocket.

I know that catastrophic oil spills warrant Plans A, B, C, D and so on.  And the last news report I read indicates that those contingency plans indeed have been necessary.  But the quote caught my eye because it sounded so counter to what God’s word says about faith.  It made me wonder how many times I have said I believed God, but I’ve proceeded like I really didn’t expect Him to come through.  I wondered how many times I’ve secretly been working on a Plan B behind His back.

A Plan B might sound like a good thing to have, but it’s really just a faith failure in disguise.  God wants us to have faith in His plan for our lives even when it doesn’t make sense, when it isn’t clear, and when it doesn’t appear to be successful by our definition. 

I don’t want to have doubts.  I don’t want to have a Plan B of my own making in my back pocket.  I don’t want to say I believe God and then proceed as if I don’t.  God’s plan is the only plan I need.

 “For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future”.  Jeremiah 29:11 

There is a difference between soul waiting and stop light waiting.  I came to that brilliant conclusion this morning. (I’m kidding about the brilliant part). I was looking up the meaning of the word “wait” in a Bible dictionary, and it said, “waiting involves the very essence of a person’s being – his soul”.   My very essence?  My soul?  Sounded a little dramatic, but then I realized it was talking about a specific kind of waiting.

There’s not usually a whole lot of my soul involved at stop lights and in grocery store lines. There may be a bit of my temper and my general impatience, but those situations are just life annoyances resulting in minor inconvenience.    Soul waiting is much, much harder.  Soul waiting is waiting for things that God knows everything about, but doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to share with us.

Of course, He has reasons for that.  Reasons that may eventually become clear, but for now, remain quite obscure.  We do know that soul waiting requires a whole lot of trust.  Soul waiting asks us to look to God with hopeful expectation, even when we have no idea when, where or how He will end the wait. 

Soul waiting has its benefits, unlike the stop light waiting, which usually only results in an eventual green light and the ability to proceed with the trip.  Soul waiting can actually renew us. “Those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31.  Soul waiting allows the Lord to give us things that wouldn’t have been possible without the wait. “Therefore, the Lord will wait that He may be gracious to you.” Isaiah 30:18.   Soul waiting allows us to rest – in God. “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:7. Soul waiting actually blesses us.  “Blessed are all those who wait for Him.”  Isaiah 30:18

And the very best part?  Knowing that God is right there in the wait with me – listening, protecting and providing.  And my soul – my very essence – can just settle in, and trust His ways, His plans, and His calendar.

“Therefore, I will look to the Lord.  I will wait for the God of my salvation.  My God will hear me.  Do not rejoice over me, my enemy.  When I fall, I will arise.  When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.”  Micah 7:7

I love watching clouds from the window of an airplane.  Big, billowy, lofty, oversized cotton ball-like clouds and even dark, gray, speckled-with-lightning clouds.  I just don’t like flying through them.  I always have fleeting thoughts of the pilot being as freaked out as I am upon the realization that we can’t see anything out that window anymore except a lot of white – or black if it’s a storm cloud.  But then, of course, reason sets in and I remember that the pilot has instruments to show him where we are and which way to go.  He doesn’t have to rely on what he sees outside.  He relies on what he sees on the instrument panel.

How many times have you been enjoying the view out your life window and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of the cloud instead of watching it as a bystander from a distance?  How many times have you found your plans and your destination obscured and muddled instead of having the clarity you had at the start of your journey?

So here’s the question: How do you find your way when you can’t see?

First, know that God is in the clouds.  In every storm, in every fog – the Bible reminds us that God’s faithfulness, truth and strength are in the clouds (Ps. 36:5, 108:4, 68:34).  That means that He’s right there in the middle of whatever is going on in our lives. We are never alone in a cloud.  Second, know that God wants to be your guide through the cloud.  “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.  I will guide you with my eye” (Ps 32:8).  When we can’t see ahead of us, we can trust the One who can. 

I recently heard of a man who is blind in one eye, and who has only 50% vision in the other due to a degenerative eye disease.  He enjoyed flying airplanes before his vision loss and probably thought he would never fly again.  But thanks to a pilot friend who acted as his seeing-eye guide, he went up in a plane, took over the controls, listened to the verbal clues of his friend and flew that aircraft!  What a lesson for us.  May we be just as quick to listen to the voice of our Pilot when we can’t see what’s happening around us  – and trust Him to give us the ride of our lives!

Sometimes, you just need to take a risk.  I’m not talking about reckless risks.  I’m talking about ones where God nudges you closer to a seemingly impossible situation and dares you to act in spite of the overwhelming odds.  I once heard those moments described as “divine impulses”.

A young guy named Jonathan had a divine impulse one day.  His father Saul, the once great King of Israel, was sitting defeated under a pomegranate tree, lamenting the fact that his army was pitiful, outnumbered , weaponless, and retreating.  He had started out with 3000 warriors, and was now down to 600.  And the enemy was quite aware of it.

Jonathan would have none of his father’s pity-party.  He knew this battle wasn’t theirs – it was God’s. So, upon a divine impulse, he snuck out of his father’s sad camp with only his armor bearer as a companion, and took on the Philistine army – with God on his side.  Fearless, he proclaimed, “Come on now, let’s go across to these uncircumcised pagans. Maybe God will work for us. There’s no rule that says God can only deliver by using a big army. No one can stop God from saving when He sets his mind to it.” (1 Samuel 14:6  The Message)

And God did indeed deliver.  These two brave guys took the biggest risk of their lives and saw God work a miracle of epic proportions.  Their success against the enemy spurred Saul and the rest of Israel’s army to stop feeling sorry for themselves under that pomegranate tree, regroup and complete what the bold ones had started.  “And the LORD saved Israel that day” (1 Samuel 14:23)

I want to have the boldness of Jonathan.  I want to take on God-sized challenges that will inspire others by what He accomplishes through me.  I want to be acutely aware of divine impulses nudging me towards seemingly impossible situations, and be willing to take a risk that will give God all the glory.  Taking a risk can be a very good thing.

For with God, nothing is impossible.  Luke 1:37

Is there anything too hard for the LORD?  Genesis 18:14

But without faith it is impossible to please Him.  For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.   Hebrews 11:6

Today is unique.  It has never occurred before, and it will never be repeated.  At midnight, it will end, quietly, suddenly, totally – forever.  But the hours in between now and then are opportunities with eternal possibilities.   Charles Swindoll

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.  Galatians 6:10

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.                      Colossians 4:5

Seize the day.

Adelaide Addison Pol­lard be­lieved God want­ed her in Af­ri­ca as a mis­sion­a­ry.  She was all ready to embark on her journey, but was un­a­ble to raise funds to go and was forced to cancel the trip. Burdened and disappointed, she at­tend­ed a pray­er meet­ing, where she heard an el­der­ly wo­man pray, “It’s all right, Lord. It does­n’t mat­ter what You bring in­to our lives, just have Your own way with us.”  God used that prayer to encourage her, lift her burden and give her hope.  She went home and penned the words to this hymn.  And in God’s timing, she did indeed end up in Africa, just where she believed He had called her to go.

I know I’ve sung this hymn many times over the course of my life, but when I read it just now – as rich text instead of just as the closing hymn to a service, I was reminded again of my own need to surrender to God’s way and God’s timing, “while I am waiting, yielded and still”.

Have Thine Own Way, Lord!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit ’till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

It looks like October on my porch.  I know, it’s April and I live in Florida.   But there are brown, dead leaves from my ficus tree blowing all over the porch.  The odd thing is, the tree itself doesn’t appear to be dying or unhealthy, just a few of the branches. And actually, it’s not whole branches. It’s just a lot of the leaves.   But there’s some new growth, too.  Strange.

I went out on my porch last night to watch the sunset and enjoy the pre-humidity, pre-summer Florida evening.  I went to talk to God.  To think, to pray, to open my heart.   I’ve needed that lately.  I asked God to show me something.  And He did. 

As I looked at the weird ficus tree with its oddly random leaf loss, I thought about some people close to me who have fallen away from God.  Friends who no longer seem connected to the branch – or the vine, as the scriptures put it.  We were all connected to the same branch and root at one time.  Some of us kept growing, kept drawing life from the root, kept close to the One who made the vine in the first place.  And others, for whatever reason, lost the connection and pulled away from the source of life.  It makes me sad.  It must make God sad, too.

As I looked at the sad parts of the tree, I noticed that there are signs of life on some of the dry parts.  It sounds like the typical thing that happens every year up north, but this seems odd down here in the tropics.  And maybe God allowed me to witness it so that I would understand that even when things seem dry and lifeless and hopeless, restored life is possible.   Maybe the outwardly visible signs of life in my old friends aren’t evident.  But God is still surging life through the vine close by.  And all they need is to drink from it – and a new leaf will grow.

God reminded me to keep praying for my friends last night.  If there is someone in your life who has seemed dry and distant and detached from God, don’t stop praying.  New life for them might be just about to start.

“I am the vine, you are the branches: He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing”  John 15:5

“We do not cease to pray for you…that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, bring fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”  Colossians 1:9-10

I’ve written before about how much I love cooking, and love to watch the cooking shows on TV – especially the competition programs.   But I didn’t expect a recent episode of Top Chef Masters to give such a profound life lesson.

Renowned chef Carmen Gonzales had “disaster” written all over her attempt at competition cooking last week.  She cut her finger open with a knife.  She forgot her main dish on the other side of town during the competition event.  While she went back to retrieve the overlooked food, the other chefs (even though they were her competitors)  tried to help her by cooking another part of her dish for her in her absence.  Helpful in theory, yes.   Helpful in reality – though well meaning, they burned her yucca and she couldn’t use it.  When she finally got back with her lag-behind Oyster Stew, she didn’t even know if she could serve it.  She had lost valuable prep time, and had lost another essential component of her dish – the yucca.  She toyed with the idea of just dropping out of the competition.  But instead, she did the best she could with what she had left.  She threw her heart into it, made a much simpler dish than she had originally planned, and the result of her “disaster” was that she ended up winning the whole thing.  Needless to say, she was speechless. 

In real life, turning seeming disaster into victory is God’s specialty.  Bible characters such as Joseph and Ruth (just to name a few) could certainly attest to that.  And we can too.  When faced with what appears to be a “disaster”, we might just have to look around at what we have left,  stop grieving over the loss of Plan A, and move forward with a new one.  

And that new plan might just be the one that God meant for us all along.

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.               Genesis 50:20

“…who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end”   Deuteronomy 8:16

It was hard to get out of bed this morning.  It’s Friday.  It’s been a long week, and I’m tired and very much looking forward to a day that does not begin at 5:15am and does not involve waking up unnaturally to the jarring sound of an alarm clock.  The word weary came to mind.  And as I began my morning routine, a verse about weariness came to mind.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.  Galations 6:9

Of course that verse isn’t talking about Friday mornings, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not equating reaping with being able to sleep in on a Saturday.  But being weary on a Friday morning can sure have the same feeling as being weary in life.  Instead of being just a long week for us, we think about the fact that it’s been a long stretch of hanging on, a long stretch of unanswered prayer, a long stretch of waiting and hoping and believing.  We want so much to sink into our “due season” – the time when all things are made right, when answers come, when faith is rewarded.

But we don’t have to wonder if that day is coming.  It is.  God has promised that to us.  Read the verse again.  We shall reap – if we don’t lose heart.  It doesn’t say, “we might reap”.  It doesn’t say “most people reap”.  It says we shall reap. 

We need to shake off the “Friday-morning-like” weariness and continue to do the things God has called us to do.  Don’t lose heart.  Don’t let the weariness of life overwhelm you.  And like a Saturday, your due season may be just around the corner.