"Strengthen the Feeble Hands, Steady the Knees That Give Way."
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When the Expected Arrives – Part 2
Mar 9th
I wonder what it’s like to be adrift at sea for months and then to see land.
I wonder what it’s like to stumble through a desert, dry and hot, and then to find water.
I wonder what it’s like to know hunger, true hunger, and to be given food to eat.
Whatever the sensation, it is understood through experienced not observation.
It is here that those who know a “longing like starvation” find themselves—when the expected arrives. Those thirsty souls can be seen running to the oasis, bucket in hand, and dreams in tow.
It is possible that the land is more solid once we have been adrift at sea for months but more likely that we have gained renewed appreciation for the earth beneath our feet. Perhaps water taste sweeter when we have been desiccated but it is more likely that we gain a deeper appreciation for what was once so scarce. And if food is not more flavorful it is certainly taken with a new appreciation.
When the waiting is over and the blessing for which you held your breath arrives, rejoice! Take what is yours, the best of what you have, and offer it to the Lord as thanks. This is the Continue Reading >>
When the Expected Arrives – Part 1
Mar 4th
It is possible for a journey to be so long and arduous that the traveler becomes most adept at traveling, at surviving while hardly expecting to arrive. We find this same condition with those who long for loved ones to be saved, who harbor a desire year after year. I remember laboring for ten years before seeing fruit in my father and then—when the Lord lit the fuse—Anthony Leslie Davis became a great man of God and a hero to me. While I labored in prayer and words to my father it was, in the end, the Lord’s work.
Our hearts might expect but we dare not presume.
Our tongues may cry out but we dare not demand.
Our hearts may hope for but we dare not hope in.
We live by faith and not by sight. We live with a desire not a realization. We pursue what we have not yet attained and sometimes after the long period of expectation—an occasion of realization—the expected arrives. Then that traveler, so familiar with the roughed landscape through the wilderness of loneliness must exchange what sustained out there for those things that sustain a marriage.
Life is lived just where we are with the hope and expectation Continue Reading >>
On Being Hinder – Part 3
Nov 10th
What I do not know is like the ocean to the dewdrop of my present knowledge, and it is the same with us all. This has been true, and will remain so well beyond our time here on earth. Sometimes the hesitation in a relationship is the product of our own homegrown fears ceded to us by family, friends, and past relationships. At other times the hesitation flows from true wisdom and caution is appropriate. Ah, but knowing the difference…
The fact of the matter is that we cannot make decisions based on what we do not know. I say this because I remember quite often waiting for a second opinion or a more favorable report. Perhaps it is the loyal soul in me, but letting go was always very hard, even when it was clear the relationship was going and should go nowhere. Sometimes it was a fear of being alone, and sometimes it was the ever present, “But what if…”
“What if this IS the person for me and I am just too wounded to let myself be loved?”
“What if I am just too picky?”
“What if she is serious about changing?”
“What if I never find someone else?”
“What if this is Continue Reading >>
On Being Hindered – Part 2
Nov 3rd
The passing of a relationship can feel like death. And it is a dying of sorts, if only a dying of dreams and hopes coupled with that fearful return to being single. But there are worse things, things lurking in the darker realms of relationships, the shadowy realms. I do not even mean the more tragic scenes of rape, abuse, or the eventual divorce. I mean also the pieces of our heart that lie strewn across the years of trying. A song I wrote many years ago begins like this;
“Every person that comes in your life takes another piece of your heart
and with every piece that slips away it gets a little harder to try.”
Carelessness in relationships is not only dangerous because of what may happen, but also because of what may die within you. Every failed relationship takes its toll, and yet, not every relationship can go forward.
As David Wilcox puts it, “Sometimes you build your hopes up and you fall back down again.??”[1]
God acts kindly in hindering us if we are in a relationship that is not His best. The kindest thing He can do is to keep us from greater mistakes. Oswald Chambers recounts this story.
‘Have you, I Continue Reading >>
