Category: Hope

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Never Late, Never Early

On Time

I have been giving a good bit of thought to the subject of timing lately. I believe it all started when my nephew’s wife went into labor 8 weeks earlier than expected. The doctors were trying to do whatever they could to buy the baby more time inside his mother’s womb so he could continue to develop. Though they were only able to hold him off for one more day, he arrived at God’s appointed time. We were expecting him to win the prize for the first baby born in 2015, but God had a different plan. The prize turned into a 2014 tax deduction instead! All kidding aside, he is making good progress and is expected to go home in the coming week, an extra special reason for his family to give thanks this Thanksgiving.

According to the calendar the baby was early, but isn’t God’s timing always perfect? What about His timing when you’ve prayed the same prayer day after day, year after year, waiting for an answer that hasn’t yet come? His timing doesn’t seem so perfect then either, does it? So how do we know God’s timing is perfect? I want to simply say, “because He is God,” but I went searching for some reinforcement for that answer in the Bible. I landed in a not so familiar book—Habakkuk.

The prophet Habakkuk laid out his complaints to the Lord in the first chapter of the book. It was a time of fear, oppression, persecution, lawlessness and immorality in Judah and Habakkuk didn’t understand why God was allowing this to go on. God planned to use the mighty Babylonians to punish His people and that led to more questioning from Habakkuk. Why the increasingly powerful and evil Babylonians? God assured him that He would also punish the Babylonians after they had fulfilled His purpose. In his time of struggle and doubt, Habakkuk received this response from God found in the second chapter of the book:

“But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!” (Habakkuk 2:3 TLB)

In this verse we find hope to replace our doubts. God is sovereign. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. As I often say, “He’s got this!” He has a purpose and a plan for your life and mine and He will carry it out at just the right time. Rest in that assurance today and keep the faith!

Celebrate God’s goodness this Thanksgiving and throughout the coming year—Happy Thanksgiving!

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Looking Back

What a week—I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced so many emotional occasions packed into a seven day period. Since my body doesn’t seem to process stress very well, I often turn to writing to help the cause. I call it my therapy. My hope is that my words benefit you, my readers, in the process.

First, there was my daughter’s last dance recital on Sunday. Then, we celebrated her high school graduation midweek. To put the icing on the cake, pun intended, my baby girl is 18 years old today and joining the ranks of the adults. This may not sound like a big deal, especially if you’ve never heard Hillary’s story, but I can assure you it seems monumental to me. She defied the odds and overcame a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. We brought her home from the hospital after 88 days in intensive care following her birth. Not coincidentally, I wrote about every one of them! I think that may have been when I first discovered writing as a form of therapy.

Celebrating Hillary’s 18th birthday today is a real milestone in my mind, one that I haven’t taken for granted. During her last year of high school there was a need to go through old photo albums in search of pictures to share at various end-of-year functions. This led to quite a bit of reminiscing on other milestones in her life and served as a reminder of God’s faithfulness in the past. When the going gets tough and it seems God is distant, we would be wise to intentionally look back at the trials He has brought us through in getting us to this point. It is a great faith-building tool. It reminds me of this passage from the Old Testament:

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” (Joshua 4:4-7 NIV)

To serve as a reminder that God stopped the flow of the Jordan River in order to allow the ark and the Israelites to cross, Joshua commanded a man from each tribe to bring up a stone from the river. These stones would later be piled up at Gilgal to serve as a memorial to God and this mighty act of His. I studied this passage several years ago with my small group and was encouraged to collect “stones” of my own to commemorate God’s great work in my life. These spiritual markers could be any item representing the life-changing events that God has used to mold and shape me. Remembering helps keep us going when the seemingly impossible enters our lives. By looking back, we are reminded that with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

As I look back at how my daughter’s life started and the many hurdles she has jumped along the way in her 18 years, I can’t help but think of these words from David’s prayer after the prophet Nathan shared his revelation with David regarding the building of the temple:

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? (1 Chronicles 17:16 NIV)

I don’t necessarily know where you’ve started, what you’ve been through, or how far you’ve come, but I would imagine you, like me, are able to see some significant life-changing moments in the rearview mirror, moments that God has used to shape you into the person you are today. Will you join me in giving thanks to God for bringing you THIS far? To Him be all praise, honor, and glory. Amen.

(Written in honor of the birthday girl—From your first picture to your most recent, you’ve come a LONG way, baby!)

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A Time of Transition

 Cap

My daughter, my baby, and my miracle, all wrapped up quite neatly into one person will be graduating from high school in a few short hours. Just the thought brings tears to my eyes, happy ones of course. According to the dictionary, to graduate means to complete an academic degree, course of training, or high school. The ceremony tonight is called commencement. To commence means to start or begin. Hmm…which is it, an ending or a beginning? I am going to give one of Hillary’s favorite answers—both! It is an ending AND a beginning all rolled up into one special evening. We celebrate her accomplishments tonight and look forward to what God has in store for the next chapter of her life.  As her newly decorated graduation cap states, “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow!” If you’ve ever been to Disney World you might remember that quote from the Carousel of Progress. There’s a chance you might even be singing it right now!

A time of transition…are you there? It applies to much more than graduation. Did you just pass your driver’s test? Get married? Divorced? Have your first child? Send a child off to school for the first time? Begin a new job? Retire? Are you moving? Grieving? All of these events and many more involve a time of transition, moving from one chapter to the next, a beginning and an end.  Life will never be quite the same. Sometimes that thought makes us sad and other times it makes us happy. Change can be scary and exciting, sometimes all at once. Do you embrace change or fear it? If you’re like me, it just depends on the circumstances.

If you can relate on any level to where I find myself today as a parent of a graduate, I want to leave you with two somewhat familiar, but powerful, promises found in God’s Word that bring me comfort during these times of transition:

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 NLT)

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT)

 

Dedicated to my graduate, Hillary Jayne Leipold, and all graduates from the Class of 2014

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A Day to Remember, A Day to Forget

detour

I can’t believe it’s May 19th again. That could very well be what my sister is thinking as she adds another candle to her birthday cake. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? What about when you aren’t? The truth is it really doesn’t matter whether you’re having fun or not, there are still 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, etc. It only seems that it is going faster when you’re having fun.

May 19th has become notorious for me in recent years for a reason apart from my sister’s birthday. This year marks 3 years since my infamous elbow surgery gone bad. It seemed like such a simple procedure at the time, but the results were (and still are) quite complicated. As the days and weeks followed, I slowly came to realize that my life had taken an unexpected turn, at least from my perspective. This new route has been far from fun. Time doesn’t seem to be moving all that fast on this road I’ve been traveling. As I write this I am reminded of the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land. If I remember correctly it took them 40 years to make a journey that should have taken 9 days. That’s quite a disparity! Apparently they weren’t ready to enter the Promised Land quite yet so God took them on a detour. While on that detour He molded and shaped their character to prepare them for their future. Apparently it was a very lengthy process! While wandering in the desert, they moaned, grumbled and complained, grew impatient and were even fearful at times. I’m not so different from the Israelites. Are you?

For as long as I am on this road that I am currently traveling, I vow to remember that there is purpose in it and wanted to remind you that there is purpose in the detours of your life as well. Let us rejoice in that knowledge.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope …” Romans 5:3-4 (ESV)

I don’t know how long it might take us to reach our “promised land” but I believe with every part of my being that He will sustain us on His chosen path. Not only sustain us, but also make us look more like Jesus in the process. Our hope is in Him, now and forever. Amen.