Life Under Construction

By: Amy Beth Williams

Life under construction:  Experiencing life’s delays, detours and ditches.

For the past several months, I have had the unpleasant experience of road construction right outside my apartment building. Between the jackhammers, bulldozers and orange cones, I am ready for it to be over!

As much as an annoyance this entire project is to me, I have come to realize that my life isn’t much different. God oftentimes has us “under construction” in whatever area He sees fit. First there are the detours. You know, those times when your plan A turned into plan B, turned into Plan Y? It’s when we think we know best and God proves otherwise (and by the way, He is always right). Detours are often necessary for God to test our hearts, grow our faith and to remind us to surrender control and leave the driving to God. We can’t get to our desired destination without His wisdom and guidance.

Secondly, there are the delays. Just when you think the destination is right around the corner, another two months pass, then a year and before you know it, you start to believe God has forgotten you. Waiting is HARD. There is nothing more difficult than waiting on a promise from God without any outward encouragement. The temptation is to take a shortcut but we learned from Abraham and Sarah that it’s better to wait on God than to create a proverbial Ishmael.  Trust His timing. He knows best!

And then there are the ditches. Those places in life where we get stuck and there seems to be no way out. No matter what we do or how hard we try, we feel shipwrecked. I know from my own life, there are many times when the very pit I prayed my way out of was the very place that God was preparing me for the blessing. Just like Joseph, we need to trust that God is in our seemingly helpless situations and is just waiting for us to surrender control so that His glory can be displayed in our lives. There is a purpose even in the ditches of life.

There are few other things about construction I have noticed:

1. It never seems to have an end.

2. Eventually, it does end.

3.  It’s always for a purpose, even when we can’t see it at the time.

We have to remember even when, especially when, God is working on us. Let Him have His way – He knows how to get you to the other side safely. Remember: the orange cones are only temporary!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.” Proverbs 3:5

A Lesson from the Bamboo Tree

By Amy Beth Williams

I was just talking to a friend about how the ordinary days of seeing absolutely nothing are so much more common than the truly “seeing God at work” days. The challenge is to hold on when nothing outwardly changes, knowing that he is working behind the scenes and for us to still rejoice despite what we see – or don’t see. So here’s a mini sermon after doing a little research on how bamboo trees and how we can relate spiritually…

In the first 4years after a bamboo is planted, nothing can be seen but a small blade. It would be easy and logical to assume that every day that passes, nothing is happening and it’s pointless to believe it will. But EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING! What we don’t see is that all the growth is taking place underground building miles of an intricate root system that is so complex and sophisticated that it will support and sustain the massive growth that is predestined for the plant. If you try to pull the tiny blade out of the ground, it’s impossible because the roots grow so deep and they become incredibly strong that it won’t budge. After the root system is complete, the tree can grow up to 90 feet in a year! This compared to other fast growing trees that only reach 2.5 feet per year.

In another article about bamboo trees, I read “You CANNOT shortcut the amount of time it takes a species to establish it’s rhizome (root) system” as it will destroy the sustainability of the plant. How often I want to shortcut the waiting, not realizing that I am destroying the foundation of His blessing. It’s amazing how similarly God works in our own lives. As long as we can stand in a place of belief that God is working and growing us below ground and our only job is to water it, nurture it and not grow discouraged or lose heart when we see nothing change. In that place, we can look above ground at that little tiny sprout and still know it holds everything God promised and no one can yank it out of the ground. Let us not grow weary in waiting but let us thank God for establishing a root system that will uphold His great calling in our lives.

“God is not slow in keeping His promises as some understand slowness.” 2 Peter 3:9

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

10 Steps to Being Neurotic & Worrisome

By Julie Lucia

If you are like me, I love to learn new ways of making my life easier, my home more organized, my waistline a little smaller, a better mom, a better wife, and whatever else that can be jammed in a ten- step process.  Seven or five steps would be even better, who has time anymore for ten steps?

And so why do we get frustrated when waiting on God for direction? We just want to say, “A simple 5-step process would be fantastic. Thanks God!” It seems we end up doing a 20-step stumbling dance routine that looks like anything but a sophisticated tango or an easy task. The process might go something like this:

1. Ask God for direction and trust him for the answer.
2. Pray that not only it is for good, but it looks good too! (It needs to be easy to identify, of course.)
3. Read the bible hoping to find some miraculous verse that actually says, “Hey, I am talking to you! This is exactly what you need to do.”
4. Try to wait patiently and then easily thrust into a whirlwind of doubts the closer a decision needs to be made and nothing has happened.
5. A door is closed that looked pretty great and then someone says something negative about your future outlook.  “Did they just curse me?”  You wonder.  “Oh, no, what if that person is right and it is going to end up like that?”
6. Run back to your faith and remind yourself about God’s goodness.
7. Still waiting and wondering what is going to happen, you begin to ask around how it worked out for everyone else in your predicament and then worry again.
8. Run back to God for a refresher course on prayer and read up on all of those before who had waited on God for direction.
9. Question and question and question God. “What if I get my hopes up and they are dashed again?  Can I even dare to dream?  How can I be so far away from what God wants for me as I am doing something completely opposite of what I am asking for?”
10. Run to God and trust him for the answer.

And there you have it, 10-steps to being neurotic and worrisome.  It is the one simple step that we tend to complicate – Ask God for direction and trust him with the answer.

Psalm 27:14: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.