Are We There Yet?
Good Morning Friends,
We are in the season of waiting. The traffic. The lines. But I am at my absolute worst when listening to a prerecorded message for the seventh time. Thankfully God’s timing does not match my expectations for I am not fit to talk to any human when I am angry. What I can imagine in my mind and the reality of the frustrations I often feel while on hold just points to my impatience. I can so easily make matters worse. Here is the deal with power and control. We never know how much power we have and when we test it, it is never enough. Only when I have turned it over to God can I find a better way of reaching my true objectives. It is not fight or flight but love and it is not a destination but a journey. Only in love do we discover God’s perfect wisdom and faithfulness… only in love do we get a direct line to power. Thankfully the way of the Lord is worth the wait. Still we ask. Are We There Yet?
Scripture: To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD! Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
Psalm 25:1-10 (NRSV)
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’
John 11:17-27 (NRSV)
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
Acts 1:1-11 (NRSV)
Message: If there is any such thing as a universal question, it may be this: Are we there yet? Generations of children have asked it. They have then grown into adults who have to answer the same question when their children ask. In life, it sometimes seems as if we are wandering in circles. We feel lost. We want to ask God, “Are we there yet? How much longer?” Whenever I read the books of Moses, I wonder how many times he heard that question from the Israelites. Before rescuing them from slavery and leading them out of Egypt, Moses told them that the Lord would lead but the waiting is a challenge. As I contemplate today’s scripture this morning I am also awaiting a sunrise. And as it approaches it dawns on me that nothing I can do will speed up its arrival. So too in the middle of life’s pressures, confusion, failure and daily living, God provides a way for our hearts to be connected so we might have both a temporal and spiritual victory as a way of arriving emotionally and spiritually in the comforting presence of God. To find God’s way in the bureaucratic wilderness we must trust God to get what God can do for us instead of trying to do it all on our own emotions. He is the one at work in history before and after us. Here God leads the humble. When the pressure is rising we need to trust God, seek His guidance and we need to ask forgiveness for trying to do it on our own. If we wait on the Lord for guidance we will not be ashamed. Here the story of Lazarus is our story too. We are all dead waiting for Jesus to come…to call us out of our tomb …to save us from our stink. So too on the journey we must overcome the stagnation of wandering in the desert of life.
Pray that when we try and fail to live sinless lives that God would wash away the stain and shame. Pray we wake up to a new day cleaned inside and out. Pray we stop putting God on hold. Pray we listen up. Pray that when we are in distress that we trust God to protect us but also seek His help. Pray we not rely on our own understanding but put faith in the path of salvation. Pray we follow God to significance not just success. Pray we see every moment as an opportunity to experience a fantastic adventure with God. Pray we fear the power of God. Pray we realize that God is good and that His gift of power is not a strategic achievement of our own. Pray that in our servant leadership we might become custodians of God’s resurrection power and cultivate some common cultural good. Pray we observe what we do with our power and what we do with our powerlessness. Pray that our work and worship are one. Pray we motivate others by our love not through fear, guilt and shame. Pray we respond to Jesus right where He has placed us and we take some time to consider that our waiting it is not about us, our waiting is about Jesus.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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