Pioneering: Meditations for Transforming Our
Carlisle
United Methodist Church
Number 19 March
3, 2013
Waiting
for…
Be still before the
Lord and wait patiently for him…Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. Psalm 27:13-14
I believe that I
shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your
heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 37:7-8
It’s nearly midnight on
Saturday. I am facing what I believe is
a deadline to submit this meditation. The cycle for me has always been receive
the last meditation in my mail slot on Sunday morning, and start the next one
that Sunday evening so I can submit to the office staffs in time for them to
publish it and distribute it in bulletins or mail slots.
But things (stuff) piled up
this week that made so much noise that my soul could not hear the message. Along with many other folks, my mind and body
were working on “The Bridge,” the first newsletter for Carlisle, our new baby
Church, to make sure it got into the publisher’s hands in time to get into the
three campuses’ newsletter cycle.
As three families, we are also
feeling the steady pressure of deadlines.
I’m sure the Pastors, the Transition Team and the Focus Groups, and the
newly commissioned Leadership Council are looking at deadlines for far more
important activities and events than these meditations.
Each of you can relate to the
subtle (and not so subtle) pressure of deadlines, especially those imposed by a
boss, or a spouse (is that another word for boss?), or children (adult or
younger), or the government. After all,
April 15 is only six weeks away.
Some birthdays or anniversaries
call for the perfect gift. The boss
needs your report, or that car repaired, or those supplies ordered. Your creditors insist on you paying your
bills. A teacher expects your homework
(is there still homework, I wonder.) You
get the picture.
Now, it seems that our three churches
are imposing deadlines that affect us.
Is there no escape? We’re facing
deadlines on cleaning our buildings, on making room in buildings, on handling
ordinary business stuff, on getting ready for big events. And then there are our own decisions on what
we personally are going to do. Sometimes
we feel we’re stuck waiting, waiting, waiting.
Did you ever get the feeling
that God just put you on hold? Doesn’t
God know we need some guidance down here?
We’d like to get something done today.
After all, we don’t have all day.
Does he know who I am? Should I
just hang up and call back? (By the way,
If God does have a Hold button, what sort of music would you hear while you
wait?
You know, as humans we do get a
little frustrated with Adonai, the Lord
God and King of the Universe.
Although Psalm 8 declares that
God has given us dominion over the works of God’s hands and has put all things
under our feet, God did not give us
dominion over time.
Only the Everlasting God has
dominion over Time. Time is God’s. All time is God’s, even the idling time we
believe is wasted and prevents us from meeting deadlines.
We do the same thing with the
seasons. Right now most of us are
eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring.
We’re tired of Winter. We want to
move on to more pleasant days of more sunshine, warmth and the beauty of nature
– things that we are told we have dominion over, but really don’t, or we’d
botch them up for sure.
But winter has its full course
to run, Phil or no Phil. Spring does not
come overnight. There are many subtle
changes that must have time to happen before soil and sky, flora and fauna are
ready for the rapid pace that sometimes seems like a sprinter shooting out of
the starting blocks.
And now I believe I’m getting a
glimmer of the message God is imparting to me.
God is silent until I am able to let go of all my frustration with time
and learn to await God’s presence.
Our waiting should not be
waiting in dread, like waiting for a root canal procedure to begin. It should not be time spent in frustration
watching the second hand sweep by, or days of the calendar fall like
leaves. No, our waiting should be spent
in hope, in eager, growing anticipation of a momentous event, like the birth of
a child, like the walk down the aisle, like enduring Lent for the celebration
of another glorious Easter. Our waiting
needs to be based on the never-failing promises and immeasurable love of the
God who created us as the crowning achievement for God’s glory.
Why do they call them
deadlines? Will we be goners if we miss
them? Our earthly bosses might look at
things that way, but the ex-carpenter whom we have pledged to serve has a different view, especially if
we are waiting in trust for His instructions or answers, and especially when we
use our waiting time to remember how we have been blessed at all times and in
all things before.
I wait for the Lord;
my soul waits; and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen
for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. Psalm
130:5-6
Common
Prayer. O Lord of all good life, we pray that You
will purify our lives. Help us each day
to know You more deeply, and by the power of Your Holy Spirit use us to offer
You to all we meet. Make us humble,
brave, and loving; give us the blessing that can only come from learning to
wait patiently for You. And reward us by
making us ready for adventure. We do not
ask that You keep us safe, but that You grant us growing loyalty and boldness
as we follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN.
To
think about: If you are waiting without praying, is the
waiting time wasted? Maybe I should
carry the weekly Prayer Request list with me and pray it while I wait.
Prayer
emphasis for the next two weeks:
The Leadership Council; the concluding
work of Focus Groups, especially Transitional Facilities; Grow; Worship; and Serve;
the upcoming combined worship events; a Sacred Lent.
Please
address your feedback and comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net. I’d really like to hear from you!
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