just stay calm

 

As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, `Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!’”
  But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”            Exodus 14:10-14

 

Just stay calm? Really? We don’t want those words. Not when the world is crashing in or our plans are falling a part. We had almost made it, we were almost there. And then…the feared or the unforeseen. The worst that could happen. No worse than the worst. Everything is not as it should be and all has gone wrong.

 

This is when we like to blame. This is when we second-guess: when things seem inevitable—as if anything is unavoidable with God! The more I read through Exodus the more I see us in the Israelites. They are who we are.

 

When all the pain and cost is on the Egyptians the Israelites are all about leaving. They love the idea and accept what is given. But not when they have to pay. They didn’t like that at the beginning when the work load is increased and not here when it seems that Pharaoh will catch them again. No, now they blame. Now they deny that they ever had dreams of more than slavery or wants beyond being oppressed.

 

Why is it that we are afraid to dream unless there are guarantees involved? Why do we fear failing in when seeking God’s best for us? Can it really be failing if we falter in a pursuit of God and his Promised Land for us? Is it not success simply to go when he says go?

 

The Israelites have just made it out and here is Pharaoh, bearing down on them again and they are afraid. And just like us they lash out, they cry out, they blame and become fatalists. And Moses has words that no one wants to hear in a crisis.

 

Don’t be afraid.

 

Of course we are afraid! Why would we not be afraid? We are afraid of the worst happening. Afraid of failing. Afraid of seeing our dreams be so close and then have them ripped away again. But if we are on God’s journey and he is leading, then doesn’t it make sense that we not fear?

 

Stand still.

 

When a crisis strikes we like to “do” things, don’t we. Anything. Doing at least makes us feel like we have some semblance of control. Ah, and there’s the problem, isn’t it? We like control. Watch the Lord? But that means keeping my focus on him instead of my crisis. That means relying on him instead of myself.

 

Just stay calm.

 

As I said, we don’t want to hear this when things are falling a part. Especially when we are anything but calm! But the truth is that Moses is right. If God has called us, if God is leading us, if God is God at all, we should be more calm. Not uncaring or disengaged. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hurt or feel disappointment. But panic? No, we shouldn’t panic. Blame others when things are crashing in? Assume the worst and resign ourselves to some fatalistic outcome? These things we shouldn’t do; we shouldn’t become.

 

The greatest display of our faith isn’t just found in the choosing to follow at the beginning, but also in the continued following, in the response to crisis situations that arise. It is found in how we live the journey each day, whether a good or bad day. Whether an expected day, or something we don’t know how to handle.

 

Just stay calm…and let God do what he will do. We have nothing to fear.

 

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.          Romans 8:35-39

love’s deep sigh

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
  When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.                  Mark 8:11-13

 

I wonder, was it the constant need for Jesus to prove himself that brings about the heavy sigh and the sadness? Or was it the demanding?

 

Why so resistant to believe?

Why must I prove myself again and again?

Have I given you so little? Have I been so inconsistent?

 

You come to me to argue instead of to share.

You come to me to debate and test.

Why not come to simply receive?

 

Is it because you have confused receiving with choosing?

Is it that your own have taught you of “rights” but not of gifts?

Why do you demand when I have already given?

 

So much of your energy goes to seeing what is not.

So much of your emotion to what hasn’t or didn’t.

Do these things really prove that I am not; or just that I am not as you’d have me to be?

 

I sigh deep when you doubt because I am not tame.

I sigh deep until I restore all things and make you whole again.

Did you know that while you anxiously wait for my return, I wait for it more?

 

little by little

Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.   Exodus 23:30

 

We are such an impatient society. We want everything now, or better yet, we want it yesterday! It’s one of the negative side effects of fast food restaurants, digital downloads, and credit. We have been led to believe that if something is worth having, it’s worth having fast. Nothing is worth waiting for these days.If we want it now we can have it now. Even if having it now costs more in the long run.

We don’t wait well. We don’t pause much. We don’t breath deep and enjoy the moment. We are always running after what’s next. We have all but forgotten how to live with a sense of present-ness. We no longer are all that interested in embracing the moment because we are busy planning and strategizing for tomorrow.

And I fear the impact on our souls has been far worse than we realize.

As I was reading through Exodus this morning, pondering all that God had to say to the Israelite people as he sets them up for a future with himself, I was struck by something God said. I don’t know if it was hard for the Israelites to take, the Bible doesn’t really say. But I think in our day and age it would have been met with some resistance.

In Exodus 23 God is telling the Israelites how he will send an angel with them to protect them and guide them as they make their way into the Promised Land. And God explains that he will drive out before them all their enemies and help them take the land that he had set aside for them. But then God makes a startling (at least to us) statement.

This victory, this “claiming what God has for them” will not be quick. It will not be instantaneous and it will not be easy. It will take years.

In fact, God uses the term “little by little” to describe the progress towards victory that they will experience.

Little by little! I thought God moved in miraculous ways?! I thought God displaying his power meant fast and furious activity, giant waves of destruction for the enemies and easy victories for those who are God’s people?

That’s the way it’s often presented by today’s church. God moves in waves of power. God makes things happen in an instance. The only miracles are quick and obvious miracles. We don’t hear much about the subtleties of God’s moving. We don’t get much on the “slow and steady wins the race” kind of God activity.

And so all too often we feel left in the lurch by God. We feel like God isn’t doing anything because he isn’t doing anything fast. We assume that if something is little by little then more prayer and more faith will speed up the process. Apparently, that’s not always the case.

And look at why God is planning to do things this way in the promised land with his promised people:

…I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you.  Exodus 23:29

 

God says he will do it little by little until they are large enough to handle the responsibilities that come with so much land; until they can handle taking care of it.

 

Sometimes getting an answer to pray in a fast and sweeping fashion would be a punishment more than a blessing. Ever have that “if only I knew then what I know now” feeling when looking at your past experiences? Ever wish you could have a “do over” because you know you are far more capable now than you were then and you know it could work out differently this time?

We would be well served, I think, to pray for more “little by little” gifts from God rather than the constant barrage of “now, now, now!” that often becomes our mantra.

It reminds me of a song we used to sing when I was a kid. It was a good old Music Machine song about a snail:

“Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you only start to worry. Remember, remember that God is patient too…”

 

Sometimes the expression of God’s love and power is found in the slow answer to prayer; in the little by little rather than the much and the quickly.

woe to whoa

[Woe] to those who say, “Let God hurry,
let him hasten his work so we may see it.
Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come,
so we may know it.”    Isaiah 5:19

 

Isaiah 5 contains a whole string of woes. You know, like the ones Jesus pronounces in the gospels? (Matthew 23 is a good  example)

Now, nobody enjoys the “woes” or at least they shouldn’t. These are places where God has come to a point of saying enough is enough! Usually they deal with overly religious people who make their life an exercise in “see how holy I am” or about those who have snubbed their nose at God and said, “I’ll do it my way. I don’t care about you.” So typically I agree with what’s being said even if I don’t enjoy reading it. And typically I don’t feel like it’s hitting too close to home.

But then I read Isaiah 5 and the woes God pronounces there. For most of them I was in great shape. There is a woe about those who live just for getting drunk (I believe Isaiah calls them “heroes at drinking” and “champions at mixing drinks”) and there is a woe about bribery and injustice and one about calling evil good and good evil. There is a woe about building our own personal empires and one about being overly proud. But right in the middle of all of these woes is one about not being patient with God.

“Woe to those who say, ‘Let God hurry…’”

 

Wait…what?!

Can that be right? God is as fed up with people being impatient and “pushing” God to come through for them as he is with other people mentioned in these woes? The drunkards, the evil doers, the bribers…and the impatient?

Now I’m uncomfortable. Now I’m feeling the broken places in my own life more than staring at the brokenness in others. Now I don’t feel like reading anymore.

I thought about this for a while in that uncomfortable, inner silence that comes when we have stumbled upon painful truths that stick to our insides and demand to be dealt with. And I began to ask, why would God not want me to want him to hurry? Why wouldn’t he be delighted that I was excited and anxious for him to act?

And as I re-read the verse I began to see it.

Let God hurry…so we may see it…so we may know it.”

 

And isn’t that really why we usually want God to hurry it up? Because we feel lost, unsure, out of control. We want what we want and we want it now!

And usually we believe it’s for the best. We believe it‘s what God would want. But the motivating factor for us is more that we just don’t like the fear of not knowing. We aren’t comfortable with surrendering and trusting God to guide at his pace and in his time.

And so we encourage God, implore him, beg him, and on and on. Anything to get him to hurry it up! And here in Isaiah 5:19 God gives us the woe to those who don’t understand whoa!

Don’t miss the fact that “whoa” is typically a command given to pack animals to tell them to slow down. Pack animals…you know, the stubborn, not too bright ones?

So God is saying to us, “WHOA! Slow down.”

The difficulty in that is that it means trusting him to set the pace, to decide on the direction and to control when we get there.

Am I willing to slow down, to not rush on ahead, to stop trying to get God to pick up the pace? To be content with where I am today and the waiting that he is requiring?

 

 

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