What do you do while you're waiting?

We had gone on a hike, the four of us.  The two young ones stopped to make their mark in the sandstone, while the older ones walked on ahead, having already made their mark by producing 6 sandstone carvers.  Eventually the tired one said, "Let's stop and wait for them - I don't want to end up on the other side of the nature center so that it takes forever for us to find each other again."  This was an agreeable suggestion to the other one and so we found some tree stumps that looked as if they had been cut down just to provide homely chairs for the weary.  The waiting began.  

Waiting for something will give you a good indication of your level of patience.  What do you do? One of us began to get restless with a desire to move on.  The other one gathered some fallen leaves and made a little order out of the chaos, imposing design in the wilderness.  Four leaves, four corners, nice and tidy.  But neither of us were content just to sit and do nothing.  

I read a book once about Corrie Ten Boom's silent years, written by the woman who took care of her for those years.  Corrie had a stroke that left her somewhat immobile and unable to speak.  This went on for 5 years until her death.  Five whole years...it staggers the mind.  Were those wasted years?   No, according to the author.  Corrie somehow managed to impart something of value during those silent years.  She waited with grace and patience for the day of deliverance, knowing that Jesus would not have left here here unless He still had work for her to do.  Corrie's assistant was deeply ministered to by her during these years of service.  Corrie Ten Boom knew how to wait.  

I am impatient.  I don't like waiting for anything, especially when the actual time of waiting is unknown (the "are-we-there-yet" mentality).  But when it comes down to it, we cannot avoid waiting. The only question that remains is what we will do with it.  I don't think waiting always means standing still - I think it's okay to keep moving while waiting.  I think it's okay to seek to be productive while waiting.  The key to good waiting is bearing up under it patiently without complaint, being confident that God's timing is perfect.

The two older ones eventually moved onward in trail ahead, having left the design of their waiting on the path for the next travelers to see.  When we got back to the car, the sandstone carvers were there. The waiting was over.

But if we hope for what we do not see, 

we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:25

The Dew on Mount Hermon

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When you see dew, do you think of people dwelling together in unity?  King David did.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity...it is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion.

What on earth made David think of people dwelling together in unity when he observed the dew?


Dew is gathered together from the unseen moisture in the air when the humidity is high and then the temperature drops to a certain point. The conditions have to be just right; normally all that stuff just evaporates and we don't see it.

Dew usually comes in the morning, after the dark of night and the cool temperatures of the evening.

Dew refreshes the earth, quenches thirsty plants.

Dew is beautiful; it reflects the light.

Dew falls; it descends, it must go lower.

When God's people dwell together in unity, we are gathered together under just the right conditions.  The unseen Spirit draws us together to form a cloud of witnesses, a rain of refreshing, each drop a small church, as it were, with its own parched ground to fall upon. It is only when we live among the dark and cold of unbelief around us, that we coalesce and appear as the light of day, reflecting the True Light.  God makes us beautiful to a world that craves beauty; He makes us water to a thirsty world; He makes us fall onto the unrighteous in a glory of humbling.  Just as Jesus descended from heaven to humble Himself as a man, so we must go ever lower in imitation of Him, and in submission to His will.

And when we refuse to assemble together as His people, or when we squabble and fight, all that heavenly dew just evaporates.  No one will see it and no one will care.

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.  

1 Corinthians 10:24-25

Blessay

I've been thinking about the word "blog," which of course is a condensing of the words "web log." When I think of a log, I think of Star Trek: "Captain's Log, Stardate blah blah blah..."  A log is a factual report, which is more likely to contain longitude and latitude than it is to contain mental meanderings.  In fact, here's the definition I found for log: an official record of events during the voyage of a ship or aircraft.  I'm not sure the essays that I write bear much resemblance to a "log," so I've decided to coin a new phrase: "Blessay."  I had to cheat a little bit to get there, because it actually should be a condensing of the words "web essay," but "bessay" isn't nearly as euphonious as "blessay," which carries with it the connotation of a blessing in essay form.  So, I took three words and shoved them together: "web log essay."  Besides, I do like the idea of a log being in some way a record of a journey, even if there's nothing much "official" about it.  

When I started this blog - er - blessay - my stated intention was to combine thoughts about photography with thoughts about life.  That sort of ran its course and eventually got stuck on a sandbar somewhere.  I haven't been very disciplined about learning and practicing good photography for over a year.  And I found that I was hampered by the idea of having to have a photograph upon which to base my thoughts, although I have to admit it was sometimes a good way to jump start creative thinking.  Recently, I decided to making writing a "blessay" a weekly discipline, a weekly adventure.  I might still use a photograph as inspiration for a topic, but I might just as well just let myself go where my thoughts for the day lead me.  Ultimately, I still want to go "Further Up and Further In."  

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way."  

Psalm 139: 23-24