Few things show us how impatient we are like the times we are forced to wait. 

 

The waiting can be for anything – small or great, a short or long wait. And it would seem we have enough practice on ordinary days that we should get better at it than we usually do.

 

Think how many times a day you routinely might need to wait. You wait for the coffee to brew, for the toaster to pop up, for the microwave to go off, and more before you are even into the busiest part of your day. Then you wait on your kids to get up or your spouse to leave for work. Add to that the wait at a stop sign or traffic signal or someone to pick up the phone when you are on hold and it all starts to add up. These are little nuisances that most of us just expect and learn to roll with most of the time.

 

Traffic delays due to construction, bad weather, or accidents happen often as well and on days when they do, those little routine annoyances seem to be more frustrating for us. Waiting shadows us most days.

 

Waiting on results from doctor’s offices or regarding legal issues we may face are harder to endure. We are more likely to experience anxiety and stress waiting on these as well as the results from exams or job interviews.

 

In a world where much of the time is spent hurrying from one thing to another, we do not like to wait.

 

Even so, we live in a waiting world.

 

In listening to an address by John Ortberg, I was struck by how he spoke about how we live with waiting. He talked about living in a Saturday world as he reflected on the disciples after Jesus was crucified and buried. He noted that we see more than one example of 3^rd Day stories as we read in the Bible.

 

What are 3^rd Day stories? They are ones that follow a similar pattern:

 

• Day 1 – Trouble of some kind
• Day 2 – Silence and waiting (You don’t even know it’s a three-day story if it is happening to you!)
• Day 3 – Deliverance

 

For the disciples on that Saturday Sabbath so long ago, heaven was silent.

 

Some of us have experienced times when heaven was silent when we wanted an answer.

 

What choice do we have when it is Saturday and we are waiting?

 

As John Ortberg reflected on C.S, Lewis’ book, Surprised by Joy, he noted we have three options for Saturday. We can despair of all hope or that an answer or relief or deliverance will ever come. We can operate in denial of our anguish or the promise of tomorrow and Saturday ending, or we can wait.

 

We live in a Saturday world.

 

Not only do we wait for so many of these things I mentioned, but we also wait for the return for us that Jesus promised when He appeared to the disciples after that long Saturday had ended and Sunday had come. We have a choice about how we wait for Him.

 

“Friday is behind us, but Sunday hasn’t come. We live in a sinful world. We get sick, lose people we love; we have trouble. We live in a Saturday world.

Is it possible  it is the miraculous day? If we can find Jesus in hell, in death…then we can find Him anywhere!”

John Ortberg

 

 

 

 

My husband and I went to see a newly released movie back in 1981-On Golden Pond—since we loved the two leading actors, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. We fell in love with the movie, the story, the music, and the actors. We were clearly not the only ones as the list of Academy and Golden Globe Awards was a long one for the film and the actors.

 

I would guess many of you (not all) have seen it. The story of Norman and Ethel played by Fonda and Hepburn details the experience of an older couple returning to their summer cabin together. Though married for quite some time, each of them views the cabin and the return through a different lens.

 

Katharine as Ethel is excited to hear the loons, uncover the furniture, and find berries in the woods. Henry as Norman is fearful and preoccupied with dying. Their experiences prior to the opening scene that have affected their perspective are not fully revealed, but we get hints occasionally when their daughter and a grandson come to visit.

 

I remember so well how much we chuckled at certain scenes in the movie just as we found other scenes very endearing. Watching the relationship of this older married couple unfold included glimpses into their frustrations with each other as well as their deep love. The depth of their love shows through at numerous points including when Ethel fears Norman may have died when he falls and is not at first responsive and when she calls him her “knight in shining armor”.

 

When we first saw the movie we were in our thirties and we looked through those lenses and experiences. Those affected where we laughed in the movie as well as what we missed in certain places.

 

We have seen the movie a number of times since then and still love the score and the story, but our lens, our framework, is different now that we are older. Some scenes that show clearly they are “elderly” are not so funny to us now. We are older and though not as old as they are, we have walked with older friends of ours in just such a season. We know each day brings us closer to what Ethel and Norman were experiencing. We see with friends the anguish that poor health and death of a spouse is like so we see the movie differently, through a different framework.

 

It can be very easy for our framework to affect what we see or don’t see in every aspect of life.

 

Have you considered how it also affects what you see when you read scripture? We likely do not even realize it when it is happening, but it is important to pay attention. If we don’t, our framework will inform or color the text and may well distort the author’s meaning and intent when it is the text that must inform our framework so the Lord can speak into our lives with the hope only He can offer.

 

I was freshly reminded of that when I first participated in a Simeon’s Trust workshop with my daughter in 2016. It was one of a number of important tools of “First Principles” that were taught and applied as we worked together in small groups.

 

As I have been reflecting on this point of how much our framework can affect our view of the text of scripture, I was reminded of On Golden Pond where the view of life is affected by their own unique framework. That framework wasn’t unusual for them and our own framework is not unusual for us, but it is important when I am reading scripture to be aware of it and that it can color or even distort what I am reading.

 

What are some of the things that can make up our framework when we are reading in God’s Word? The list can be quite long, but let me share a start for you to consider:

• Your age or season of life
• Your ethnicity and experiences related to that
• Your vocation
• Your denominational background
• Your gender
• Your socioeconomic status
• Your sin patterns
• Your Christian maturity
• Your culture
• Your personality
• Your misconceptions

 

That beginning list gives you a sample of some of what influences your framework. Our framework can be helpful or it may hinder the truth of the passage we are reading. The key thing is to identify our framework and to try to approach the text with fresh eyes.

 

If we pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us and have Him illuminate our understanding of a passage, He will be faithful and help us see what we may very well miss.

 

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NIV

 

 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s that time of year where the calendar gets filled up with more things to do, places to be, and things to remember. Between now and the end of the calendar year it seems we try to connect with everyone we care about and handle the crammed season with hospitality despite how busy it can be.

 

We may decide we want to keep it simpler and recall promises we made last year about that very thing, but somehow there is a creep that starts to wind us up almost without our notice. Then we feel stuck!  We have once again committed to too many things with too many people and our energy, time, and budget feels stretched to the max once again.

 

We probably have read, watched and heard more about time management and self-care than we can even recall. Yet somehow, we keep repeating a pattern of busyness that can slip up on us.

 

Maybe it relates to the cultural mindset that says (or at least implies) that we can do everything without consequences to our physical, emotional, mental, relational, spiritual, and financial health. Since the culture is permeated with the mindset of “doing”, it can be hard to let go no matter what age or season of life we find ourselves in.

 

We don’t want to retreat from life and live like a hermit nor live life like a gerbil caught up in one of those little wheels that keep spinning around.

 

Believers are as guilty as anyone and sometimes more so during the last few months of the year when our desire to bless, serve, and reach out is appealed to from every quadrant.

 

I was reminded while reading in Mark 1 in the Bible today of the model evident in the story about Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law. It appears Jesus is spending time with Peter and his disciples in more of an intimate setting when Peter asks Him to help his mother-in-law who is ill with a high fever. Jesus responds in this private setting among friends and the woman is restored. No public fanfare accompanies this event.

 

But in the evening when the Sabbath has ended, people come knocking on Peter’s door because they have seen and heard about the miracles Jesus had done in other settings. They want the help He can offer even though they may not know nor care that He is the Messiah. And Jesus appears to respond to the many who come to Him.

 

That’s the kind of day that could be exhausting. We can forget in the midst of looking at the divine nature of Jesus that He was living in time and space in a human body now. As such He needed rest and time away from the many who sought Him out for what He could give them.

 

It’s impossible to miss what happens after this long evening of ministering. Jesus slips out of the house before dawn to be alone, to pray, to take in and replenish from God. He was clear about what we know and yet don’t always discipline ourselves to do – take time alone in a quiet place to hear the Lord’s voice.

 

The Lord can and does speak to us in a myriad of ways, but it is in quiet places alone where we tend to hear Him best and receive a rest and refreshment that goes beyond physical rest.

 

What’s the model we forget?

 

Jesus understood when it was time to work, minister to others, and serve, but He also knew when it was time to rest and be alone.

 

John 5:19 points to some of the “why” of that:

 

“So Jesus said, “I speak to you timeless truth. The Son is not able to do anything from himself or through my own initiative. I only do the works that I see the Father doing, for the Son does the same works as his Father.”

John 5:19 (TPT)

 

Jesus knew his daily schedule was to follow the pattern his Father had for Him. Getting in touch with Him at the outset allowed Him to accomplish all in God’s design and plan and that included time for fellowship in intimate settings with friends and time alone.

 

Medical science proves God designed our complex bodily systems with a need for rest as well as exercise and when we don’t allow time for it, our bodies, minds, and spirits get overwhelmed and don’t work as well. If we don’t pay attention more permanent effects develop. And how can He use us then?

 

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”

A.W. Tozer

 

 

 

Memories are fascinating! They give us glimpses of what was or what we believed was, but we may not recognize they are incomplete or a false narrative we’ve been trained to believe. The newest book by Melanie Dobson, Memories of Glass, will include both.

 

This latest historical fiction offering will complete the memories of several generations of the Kingston and West families with surprising intersections spanning from Holland in June of 1933 to the present-day story of Ava Drake.

 

Ava knows little about her family. Her father left her mother, brother, and her. And her mother walked away from the wealth and prestige of the Kingston family to live in coastal North Carolina. Ava is left to care for her brother many nights while her mother works to help provide. But on a night that haunts Ava’s dreams, her mother and brother die when there is an explosion and fire that take these family members’ lives.

 

Her father doesn’t want Ava, but a case worker locates a family member of her mother’s (Marcella Kingston) who takes her into her New York home. Ava is eager to have a family again but has no idea the secrets that hide beneath the families’ wealth and the source of that wealth.

 

When Ava is asked by Marcella to head the Kingston Family Foundation and travel to Amsterdam for the opening of a Memorial Library Ava stumbles upon information that leads her to look more carefully into the family story no one is telling her or talking about.

 

Her journey takes her into the story of what was happening in Holland in 1933 when the German Nazis began to take over the beloved country of Josie, Michael, and a captivating cast of characters caught up in a web to gain wealth. Some of the characters scheme to gain great riches through a purported resistance effort against the Nazis while secretly investing in the Third Reich and its war machine.

 

The beautiful country of Holland is stunned when Jewish friends and neighbors start being rounded up by the Nazis. A few (not unlike Corrie Ten Boom’s family) determine to try to save as many as they can and especially to try to save the children.

 

Melanie Dobson does a masterful job of weaving the true story of how heroic men and women risked all to rescue more than six hundred children from the Dutch theater where Jewish families were “collected” before transport to the east.

 

Ava’s search for the truth takes her from New York to North Carolina, Amsterdam, Oregon, and Uganda. In her journey she learns the truth of the family wealth and who she is.

 

As Ava says near the beginning of the story:

 

“Memories are curious things. Some I want to remember, and others…well, I simply don’t. Most of my memories – at least the ones from childhood – are curdled into lumps anyway. No amount of stirring will separate them.”

 

But the separation and clarification of the memories do happen and Ava’s mother’s Bible becomes the anchor for Ava to hold to as the truth is revealed. Her courage to uncover the truth points to redemption and forgiveness not only for her, but others as well.

 

This story captivated my heart and reminded me again of the valor of some during WW II who demonstrated a courage to risk all for those who were condemned to die.

 

“There comes a time for forgetting,

For who could live and not forget?

Now and then, however,

There must also be one who remembers.”

Albrecht Goes in Das Brandopfer (The Burnt Offering)

 

 

As I consider the things happening around me with a telephoto lens, so often my prayers are smaller than they might be if I were to widen the lens to see more. I think our prayers can be that way as well. I pray for what I wish and desire so many times and hope the Lord will agree that I have sought wisely and answer as I have asked, but in doing so have not always sought His direction for my prayers.

 

I don’t think He condemns me, as Paul writes “we see through a glass darkly” (some versions say “dimly”) and He knows my frame well. Certainly it is true as Isaiah says that His thoughts are not mine and His ways are higher than mine. He sees everything and I do not. Even so, I am reminded to seek His direction about how to pray many times in situations that I cannot begin to unravel.

 

Sometimes I have discovered later that it was good He did not answer a prayer I had prayed because He had a “better” for me than I had asked.

 

I love what Mark Batterson says in his book, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day:

 

“Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain. We pray that God will keep us out of pits and away from lions. But if God answered our prayer, it would rob us of the greatest opportunities. Many of our prayers would short-circuit God’s plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances.”

 

 I confess that doesn’t appeal to me on many levels and I certainly do not pray to find myself in hard places. What I see whenever I pick up my Bible is the truth of how difficult circumstances shaped the character of those we most revere in Hebrews 11.

 

It was the tough situations fraught with danger and uncertainty that made the timid into the tenacious, the fearful into the courageous, and the uncertain into the sure.

 

Difficult seasons and times come to us all, but where do you or I place trust and how do I or you face fear?

 

As believers we should not be surprised that trials will come and with them, suffering. The writers of the New Testament make clear we will face such things. Their writings speak of suffering beyond illness and poverty common in their time and more about standing firm in faith and belief when those things will result in persecution.

 

When I read those things, I am sobered. I want to think and believe I would stand, but I cannot forget that Peter was sure that he would do so and when crunch time came in the courtyard he failed even as Jesus had told him that he would.

 

We talk often about that failing of Peter’s, but talk less often about how Jesus used it to a greater good. Peter came to know his own heart and weakness better and Jesus offered him grace and then used his boldness to build His church. The boldness was different than at the start for Peter. Now it was not based on His self-confidence, but rather his God-confidence and love.

 

I see that so clearly in 1 Peter when he writes to believers who were dispersed in the midst of difficult times. His character shines brightly as he exhorts believers to stand, as he seeks to encourage their hearts in the midst of suffering, and as he gives wise counsel on how to walk during such times. His words show he cares, tends, and feeds the sheep and lambs even as the Lord asked of him after He met him on the shore after He arose.

 

So how do I respond when difficulties come? When prayers go unanswered or answered differently than I pray?

 

Do I yield to Satan’s tactics of discouragement and fear or do I face what has come because of who Jesus is and who He is making me to be?

 

My prayer is found in 1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV:

 

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”