I did it! I managed to fail on day 2 of Lent. I’m glad I serve a God who loves and forgives. While I had some wonderful thoughts about yesterdays devotional, I want to stick with today (friday 2-15). The frist words I read from today’s devotion are from the Psalmist. What were those first 4 words? “Wait for the Lord!” Great! That’s what I need today (sarcasm button). I mean, come on…This is the Lenten season and I know it’s about preparation, but “waiting” isn’t something I really have time to do. I would suppose you may feel the same way. It’s not that I don’t want to wait, I simply don’t have time. There are far to many things that need done and now that I’ve added a commitment to blog during Lent, I have even less time. I know, it’s not really making sense in my head either, but I digress. I do have a somewhat new perspective on waiting that I would like to share with you.
Today’s scripture is 1 Peter 3:18-22. Vs 20 really spoke to me. “God patiently waited during the time of Noah.” God could have done anything to make things move along faster, but chose to allow Noah and his family to do the right thing and God…”waited.” And how many did God wait for? Eight! Yes, just eight! Hardly seems worth it doesn’t it? I mean maybe you wait that long for an entire community, but for one small family?! God is truly amazing.
Then I discovered something else. As I was praying for the different areas in the devotional, which all have to do with waiting, I received a text message. Typically during my prayer time I would not even look at it. I can’t tell you the reason, but I automatically stopped praying to look at the message. God was slapping me in the face. The message was from a woman who was updating me on her husbands recent organ transplant. I have visited with this family a few times in the hospital and talked with them on the phone, at church, etc. I watched a healthy man become so ill that I honestly wasn’t sure how long he would be with us. Because of this particular organ failure, other organs were failing, which is awful to say the least. I’m not a doctor, but common sense says we didn’t have much time. She had updated me on a particular evening and I was praying and worrying, as were many others. Just two days later I received a txt message in the middle of the night saying that an organ was on its way and the procedure would be starting soon.
That all transpired a couple of weeks ago and ever so slowly things have improved. As I read that txt message moments ago, I couldn’t help but feel almost ashamed at my “huridness” of life. It wasn’t so much the idea of how life goes by so fast, although I seem to be reminded of that daily. This was different. It doesn’t seem that long ago that the family shared the issues that were taking place with the organ and how bad things were getting. In fact, I have noted that it seemed like just a couple of weeks ago, we were hearing the news of the illness that had just been discovered. Well, for the family, the last several months have been anything but fast! They have waited…for medication to ease the pain…for blood transfusions to sustain brain function and other organs…for doctors to determine what could be done…for hospitals to dismiss them from another several day stay in the hospital knowing it would only be a short time until their return due to complications…for the hope of finally being put on the transplant list…for the first possible transplant that wasn’t able be done after being prepped and ready for surgery…for a new transplant with hopes that other organs would also begin to work…for the fog of being unconscious to finally lift…for eyes to open…for audible responses…for someone to say, it’s going to be ok!
That’s waiting! God waits for me constantly. The only logical thing to do is to “Wait on the Lord” and give glory to God for God’s steadfast love. So, Lord, I’ll wait.
Grace and Peace
Chuck
Chuck's Blog 