I’ve meant to write a post about the eldest and my adventure in D.C. for the past two days, but everything I wrote sounded forced. We had a great time, and I plan to blog about it, but the days that followed weren’t easy and have made writing hard.
In the past month our family has dealt with challenge after another – infected lymph nodes, lice, new school/schedule, depression, strep throat for grown ups and kids, and other stuff I can’t pen. All of which I’ll write more about at some point but all of which feels to soon now.
So I sit down to write and there aren’t any words. I sit in front of this screen and reflect on the ways I could have done it better today. I could have had more patience with the kids. I could have only spoken kind words. I could have stressed less and trusted God more.
I was asked recently to provide inspirational remarks about my “journey” to where I am. Did a little laugh slip out? It did for me. It’s all rough and tumble, pell mell, helter skelter, with mainly divine intervention and grace at the high marks.
(I went to write something I thought might be profound next when the lyrics to Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping came on in stereo in my head: I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down… It’s stuck in your head now, right? Which is about par for the course because in the last paragraph I basically started quoting The Pokey Little Puppy until the grace part.)
Where was I?
Oh yes, sitting with you in the hard. If you’re in one of those hard seasons, where the drought has hit the land, and you’re just praying for rain, then I’m available to come sit beside you. I won’t offer any hollow platitudes. Your season may be a million times harder than mine. Your season may end earlier than mine. Both of us will come out of it though. Maybe not with the answer we had hoped or prayed for but the drought ends. Rain comes.
When I read the Bible, where I go sometimes when I feel lost or turned around or overwhelmed, I keep reading this promise, “I will send rain on your land in its season.” James tells us to patiently wait for the rains to come.
That’s the hard part. We’re not a particularly patient culture and we chafe when we can’t fix the problem in a thirty minute episode. That’s the only advice I’ll offer: WAIT. Hold on. Hang in. Wait.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27)
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. (Isaiah 40)
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. (Psalm 37)
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130)
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8)
We wait in hope for the Lord. (Psalm 30)
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