Yesterday Janie and I were talking about this marathon. She doesn't quite share our perspective on how miraculously far God has brought her--because she was unconscious and relaxing in the arms of Jesus while the rest of us were wide awake and continually battling fear with faith. As I told her repeatedly over the course of those two long weeks, "When you wake up, you're going to be rested but the rest of us are going to be EXHAUSTED!!" Whew, I wanted to ask those nurses if they could give me a whiff of some of those sedatives they were giving her!
But it was worth every sleepless night... for the Lord sat up with each of us every moment in even the darkest watches of the night: comforting, encouraging, strengthening, guiding. That ICU seemed like a holy sanctuary where God came down to touch and heal our desperate hearts. I cannot explain it, but I've never felt His presence so near and so dear. And it has fortified my faith, for I truly know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we need never fear our God is not able or sufficient to meet our most desperate need or to fill our deepest pit. He is greater and deeper still, and He only grows more beautiful and wonderful when you go through the fires of life.
I digress... something new and different. Back to our conversation:
As we talked, Janie, while incredibly grateful for how God has delivered her, shared her periodic discouragement and impatience with the pace of recovery and being in hospital and all she is missing in school. Like I said, she doesn't have the full perspective of the deep pit from which God has saved her, so it's harder to be patient in the waiting.
"What about all the school I'm missing?" she worried. "What about college? Will I be able to get in to college with all this? What about my applications?"
Thank You Lord that we had already faced this issue of waiting and worrying and so we had the ready answer: it's not about next week or next month or next year. It's about asking God for the daily manna for today. We ask Him for today's strength. Today's wisdom. Today's provision. Today's hope and faith.
We just take today and then we trust God for tomorrow. That's how you run a marathon--one mile at a time, one step at a time, one moment at a time. You can't run the 26th mile until you've first run mile 1 and then mile 2 and then mile 3... all the way to the finish line. It can be long and hard and sometimes even tedious, but if you just take it one mile, one step at a time, you will finish the race.
After Janie and I talked, I went outside for a walk while she had a physical therapy appointment. "Lord," I prayed, "help her. Help us. Teach us how to encourage her."
And right after that, I ran past a couple of men building a wall. Actually, they were rebuilding a portion of the wall--a beautiful, old wall comprised of large, variously shaped rocks. The wall beside the section being rebuilt looked solid and established and strong--almost like it had always been there.
But the portion they were rebuilding had just a few stones in it. The men were measuring the other rocks and slowly and meticulously placing stone after stone in the place marked for the repaired portion of the wall. One stone would be carefully placed and then after a lot of measuring and preparing, the workers would place the next stone. Boy, it was slow, demanding work... in the hot sun with little applause from the world.
And that was God's picture for me for Janie's recovery... and really for any of us who are waiting and struggling with some issue--it's stone upon stone upon stone. The daily manna. The "long obedience in the same direction." The refusal to quit when the going gets tough. The stone... and then after waiting and working there came another stone.... and more waiting and working and another stone.
While He is building us, we may not be able to visualize the beautiful wall into which He is building us. We grow discouraged and impatient and frustrated. It hurts when we, like those stones, suffer the pounding and sanding and seemingly rough handling of the workers, of God's work within us.
But one day, after all the pain and waiting and wondering, we discover that He has built us into something beautiful and strong and eternal. Like that lovely, old wall, we will one day be finished by the Maker... it will take time and perseverance and some pain, but He will finish what He started in us. "And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil.1:6)
And He will. He will with Janie, and He will with each of us. One stone at a time.
After all, He who rolls away the stones from the tomb can then build them into something beautiful that He might be glorified. Thank You for rolling away the stones... and thank You for building those stones into a magnificent sanctuary in Janie's life, Lord. You are still building in her life... help her--and us-- to be patient and trusting and praising--in the long process.
Only our mighty God could take the ugly stones of her imprisonment and build them into a palace. But You do it everyday in the lives of Your children. Do it again, Lord, in the lives of those still waiting for Your deliverance. To God, our Builder and Creator and Sustainer, be all the glory.
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