Being Content

Go or Stand

We live in a fast-past world. We go and go, always pushing to what lies ahead, straining for that next rung on the proverbial ladder. For the Christian, this means that we are often eager to discover what God’s next step for us is. We want to get moving – ready to go where He wants us to go, straining to understand where the path that He wants us to walk will lead.

God, however, doesn’t always see fit to reveal to us the next step at our moment of inquiry. In His wisdom, God sometimes desires for us to remain where we are – at least in terms of our present circumstance. He doesn’t always tell us – “This is where I’m leading you.” Instead, He wants us to learn to trust Him even when the next step is unclear.

 

George MacDonald stated it this way,

Faith is that which, knowing the Lord’s will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills; neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action. (“The Temptation in the Wilderness,” Unspoken Sermons, Series I)

Did you catch that? If we want to live lives of faith, it means that we have to be ready to go when God calls us somewhere. It also means that when God hasn’t clearly called us somewhere, we have to be content with where He has placed us now. In either circumstance, being faithful means doing what God has called us to do.

It’s a hard reality. We want to see beyond the horizon; we want to know what’s in store. Like children, we are anxious to discover what lies inside the presents under the tree. Sometimes, God calls us to move; sometimes He calls us to wait. In either case, we can be grateful that God calls us at all.

Which is harder…going when God says “go” or waiting when He says “wait”? Why do you think that is?

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Hope

Obscured View

As I’ve previously written about, I have a long drive to work. Thankfully,I like to drive and God doesn’t let these extended times spent on the road go to waste. He often uses them to teach me things about Himself and about the Christian life. It is no mistake that the Christian life is often compared to a journey for there is much about a significant time spent traveling that equates to the time we spend on this Earth walking with God.

Since the seasons have started to change (a subtle occurrence in Southern California, to be sure), there is now the greater possibility that my morning commute will be peppered with fog. Usually, the sun is breaking through so the condense air is nothing more than a pretty filter for the bright rays of light. Sometimes, however, the fog is heavy and it makes seeing what’s in front of me a challenge. Even the car that just passed me, can be difficult to see within a few seconds.

One unexpected outcome of this is that the fog can make my familiar journey seem strange. The landscape and the signs that I’m used to seeing our hidden from my view, and therefore the road appears to be a different one. I will be heading towards my exit, and have to check and make sure that it is the right path  to take because all my suroundings look different. Even though I know the way, the fog makes it seem unfamiliar. It takes that which I know to be true, and makes me think twice about it.

Sometimes we let the foggy teachings of this world do the same to us. We start off on our familiar journey with God, but we let the heavy air obscure our sight. It appears to change the path that we’re on, even though it is in fact, the one that God has called us to walk.  We wonder if we’re heading the right direction because we can’t see the familiar signs and settings. Not because they aren’t there, but because we are letting other considerations – our thoughts, feelings, and desires – hide them from us.

Yet when we are on the right path – when we are walking where God has called us to walk – the fact that our view is hazy shouldn’t prevent us from our journey. After all, He is above the fog – and He still sees the journey that we’re walking. Instead we need to do what I do on my morning commute – drive through the fog and continue down the path He’s called us to  The things that cloud our view that aren’t from God need to be dismissed – much like the morning fog fades in the light of day.

If the foggy things of this life are obscuring our view – we need to keep moving forward – knowing that for His children the fog is temporary, but the path He has us on leads to eternity.

 

Why does the fog of this life impact our walk with God? How can we prevent it from doing so?

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