Resting in God’s Perfect Timing

When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside.

John 2: 3-9

I love this story because it gives me a picture of a Jesus with “skin on.”

Jesus is out at a wedding with his mother and we would assume many other friends. Here is a snapshot from the family phot album of the real Jesus, a real man, gathering together with family and friends after likely having walked to the village of Cana, where Nathaniel lived, nearby his home in Nazareth.

He is standing around after the wedding just enjoying conversation, laughing, talking and enjoying the friendship and community, when the normal flow of the day takes a supernatural turn.

The thing that strikes me most as the story unfolds in real time is Jesus’ sensitivity and obedience to moving, only when the Father told Him to move and act and not before.

“Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Here in Cana as the day unfolds, Mary, Jesus mother, prods Him to do a miracle and to act. He gently reproves her and says, “my time is not yet come.”

The lesson and encouragement to me in this story is that when you are waiting upon God or sense you are in the desert with no permission to move, it is right and appropriate to sit still. We must not move until God tells us to move.

The other encouraging part of this story for me is that, sometimes in the desert, you feel….when….when when will God break the silence and release me to move and to do things for Him. Will it ever happen again.

The answer is that the release can come at anytime. In one moment when Jesus mother pushed Him to act He said, “NO….I do not have release….it is not my time” But, after an undisclosed time, likely not too long after His Mother’s prodding, He obviously felt confident of His release from God to act.

So take courage and rest dear saint that is in a time of waiting. You are not lazy and irresponsible when the activist culture of doers around you says get up and do something. You must not move until the Father tells you to move and you sense release.

But also be encouraged and listen for the wisper of God’s permission. Your release may be closer that it feels. It could be any minute!

Where Passionate Pilgrims Hang

Psalm 84: 1-4 Once You’ve Been … You Must Go Back

My wife is a Disneyland fanatic. There is something about the happiest place on earth that draws her like a magnet every time we head toward Southern California. Last month, I cratered and gave way to her childlike exuberance and agreed to get annual passes.

There is something at Disney’s Park that allows people to disconnect from the crazy world we live in. The cares of life fade for a season, as we escape into the fantasy and trouble free presence that is thick and palpable in the atmosphere of the world Disney created.

That something that draws my wife and hundreds of thousands of people to return again and again is the experience of wonder, awe, creativity, purity, fun, family, happiness and good triumphing over evil.

Why are those things so seductive and powerful? I believe it is because each are a reflection of the person and character of God. Our spirits are drawn to the experience like bees to honey because we instinctively know, that is what we were made for. There is a winsomeness that goes straight to the core of our being when we encounter the divine character of God softly speaking through the wholesome and God birthed ideas and characters Disney created.

The “Fantasyland” is actually a little taste of “Realityland”; the reality of God’s presence, that is often so illusive to humans in day to day life.

The Psalmist reveals this insaitiable yearning of the human heart to be at home in God’s presence in verses 1-2 of Psalm 84:

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”

The presence of God is a magnet that tugs at the heart of every pilgrim that has ever tasted and seen the presence of God at sometime in their life.

David says, “My heart yearns, even faints for the courts of the LORD.”

Like a traveler in the desert, who will die if he does not find water, David literally hungers to be enveloped in the presence of God. Every cry of his heart and every cell of his flesh screams for proximity and intimacy with the living God himself.

Even as I write this, the pressures of the day, and the overwhelming queue of e-mails that are just a click away, are warring against the reality of my need to be in God’s presence before I head into the day. The Fantasyland of life apart from intimate connection with God screams the lie,

“I am Realityland … Realityland is over here.” What an imposter! What a trap!

How many of us wander in that space, having been wooed there by a false sense of self-sufficiency, that in the end robs us of the only relationship that gives us life and feeds our thirsty soul.

When was the last time you were drawn irresistably into the presence of God? Has life become a mad dash, a routine, a series of repeated cycles of eat, work to make a living and sleep with a once a year trip to the happiest place on earth to forget it all?

God becons us all to an annual pass! Actually a daily pass to bask in His presence and to fully enjoy Him. He cannot be fully enjoyed by a quick trip to the Disney Parking Garage or a fly through the park on the Monorail, with a quick glance at all the attractions in the distance just out of reach.

You must enter all the way in.

And when you do you will find Him. The Creator of the park is standing on tip toes. He is looking for your weary frame in the midst of the crowd. Why, because He can’t wait to hang with you and to revel with you through the endless attractions and magic he has created to feed your soul and to give you life.

Nothing means more to Him than sharing the wonders of all that He is and all that He has with you! You were meant to be a God’s presence fanatic! If you know Jesus you already have an eternal pass!

Don’t use it once or twice a year. Wear it out!

Speaking God’s Love Language: Depending on Him

My morning ritual of answering e-mails was interrupted the other day by the ring of my cell phone.

“Hi dad, where are you?”, asked my oldest daughter Leisa. My spirits quickly shifted from the heavy intensity of my workload to a sense of joy that only a dad understands when he talks to his daughter.

“I am down at Yellowood Coffee doing e-mails and working,” I responded. “What’s up?”

“Oh awesome, I really really need to talk to you and get your advice on a big business decision I need to make. I have a contract I want you to look at before I sign it. Can I come down there, I am almost there.”

“You bet honey, come on down. I would love to hear what’s going on,” I responded.

In reality, I had a ton to get done that morning. I was hiding out, away from my office to plow through a number of things. But immediately my sense of stress and drivenness to get alot done turned to a twinge of joy and excitement.

What dad doesn’t want to spend time with his daughter! And what dad doesn’t feel incredibly satisfied and fulfilled when his daughter expresses her need for help and dependence on him. There is an unspeakable joy when our kids allow us to meet needs in their lives and recognize that we have something to offer them.

It is especially true I think when it is a grown up child and they don’t have to come to you, but seek you out anyway.

As I waited for her to show up my mind drifted to this past August when I walked this same daughter down the aisle and gave her away to Tyson, her new husband. I remember thinking, “she will now look to him to meet her needs.” There was a mixed sense of loss but also a sense of peace and joy, knowing that this fine young man would truly take care of my girl. I had been the primary male care giver for her over the last 24 years. Now she would look to him.

As I watched the two of them together it all seemed right. I could see the amazing sense of security on her face as they embraced. She knew that she was loved and cared for. I could see the tremendous sense of joy on Tyson’s countenance, knowing he was finally the man in her life, and would have the chance to care for Leisa and provide for her needs.

Did you know God finds the same unspeakable joy and satisfaction when we entrust ourselves to Him?

Just as my heart was filled with joy at Leisa including me in her big business decision, God’s heart overflows with joy whenever we depend on him even for the smallest things in our life.

We speak His love language every time we turn our heart to Him in child like dependence.

Take a look at the picture above of my daughter Leisa as she lays her head on Tyson’s chest. Is that a picture of your relationship with God?

Scripture says that those of us that name the name of Christ are called His Bride. Nothing speaks more to God about your love for Him than when you cast aside your own self-reliance, in exchange for deep trust and abandonment to His tender care.

Speaking God’s Love Language: Delighting in Him

Leaving a ministry and calling you have poured heart and soul into for fifteen years is not an easy thing to do. In fact for me it was tantamount to someone close to me dying.

When the full import and finality of my resignation hit me, I broke. I had resigned of my own accord because I sensed God’s release, but it did not make it easy. I was laying down everything I had built my life around.

I remember sitting on my bed and sobbing uncontrollably, like a father who had just lost a son. The emotion was so deep and unbridled that I remember thinking, through tears, what is wrong with you. Are you loosing your mind? Buck up and get a grip!

The next morning I began a pattern of seeking God in the mornings that has continued for the last six years. I woke very early, and out of a sense of lostness went out and walked the streets in my neighborhood crying out to God.

Where was He?
Why would all that seemed to be my dreams and calling come to a screeching halt?
Why would God allow such, when He was the author of those dreams and the originator of that calling?
Why questions strangled and choked all other thoughts.

I distinctly remember sitting on a rock that morning at the elementary school my kids had attended when they were small. There on that rock God and I had it out. I did most of the talking…or maybe, ranting and raving is a better description… He was silent and just did a lot of listening.

The silence continued for days.

The rock became a daily, early morning meeting place for God and me. At least I went there, hoping to hear from Him. But the silence continued as a loud and deafening response to my hearts cry.

On one of the mornings as I was reading the scriptures I plowed into Psalm 37 looking desperately for God to speak about the future and what was next for my life.

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. “

This was it! Finally a breakthrough! God was speaking! And it was exactly what I wanted and needed to hear. It was a word from God, filled with assurance that even though I had left behind my ministry, He would lead me into safe pasture. He would give me the desires of my heart… it even said He was going to give me my next cause!

My spirit soared with rejoicing as the promise of the next cause leapt off the page. I was not hung out to dry! I would have my next mountain to conquer! There it was in black and white, inspired by God, in the pages of scripture, put there for me, for that moment, on that rock! Wooohooo!

But then, through the joyful noise and celebration in my heart, the voice of God’s Spirit began to speak quietly. “Bob read the passage again.”

I silently responded, “OK Lord”. I read it again.

As I pondered the words, God’s gentle voice said to me, “Bob, I am the centerpiece of this passage, not you. When you read this all you could see was the abundant pasture and your needs being met. All you saw was your next cause.

Do you see me in this passage or just your next cause and your next mountain to tackle. I want you to learn to trust me and to delight yourself in me. I want you to learn to be still and desire me. I want you to cherish me and delight yourself in me more than you delight in what you do for me.”

In a moment His gentle words pierced my soul. I knew what God was saying. I had made my ministry my idol. My identity was built around the ministry I had just laid down. My accomplishments meant more to me than the one I was supposedly accomplishing things for.

Tears filled my eyes again as I realized the depth of what God was so gently revealing to me. My mourning was proportionate to the depth of my idolatry and misplaced affections.

God wasn’t done yet. “Read on Bob… He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. ”

“What comes first Bob, the dawn or the noon day,” he queried gently. “The dawn,” I responded not completely getting where He was heading.

“That’s right, and what comes at the dawn son?”

“My righteousness,” I whispered in quiet contemplation.

Then He said to me in an almost audible voice, “Bob, I want you to learn to delight in me like you never have. I want you to lay down your dreams, your legacy and your cause. Such things are mine to build and not for you to create. I want to work on your heart. Your cause will come, but not until we work on your righteousness and the passion of your heart. The noon day comes later after the dawn and not the other way around.”

That morning began a journey that I would never trade for anything in all the world. It wasn’t that I had never loved God during the first 22 years of walking with Him. But that morning I was freed from a lifelong pursuit of trying to gain God’s and others favor and my own sense of self-worth through what I do and what I accomplish. Never again will God be displaced as the absolute center of my hearts affections.

I have learned a deeper and sweeter romance with Jesus than ever before in my life. It continues today to hold sway over everything in my life.

I know today that nothing brings more unspeakable joy to the heart of God than to know that there is nothing I want more than I want Him. He has become the greatest object of my delight and pleasure in this life.

I even have a crazy prayer I pray form time to time that goes like this.

“God, When you scan time and history and you review the lives of the saints, I pray that I will be one of the men about whom you will say, He loved me more than most other men and more than anything else in his life.”

Are you speaking God’s love language?

He receives unspeakable joy when you love Him more than your own destiny and plans. Pause and think today. What have you wrapped your life around? Is God the center of your affections? You speak His love language when you learn to delight in Him alone.

Speaking God’s Love Language: Aligning With the Father’s Heart

The greatest lesson I ever learned about speaking God’s love language I learned from my son Joel. Joel is now a six foot four strapping young man, who loves God and has so much more going for him than I did at age 22.

I had just left a ministry I’d been involved with for 15 years. I thought I would spend the rest of my life there, but God had other plans. In one meeting, where decisions were made by the Board of Directors and the Exec team, all of my aspirations and dreams came to a crashing halt. The division of the organization I was leading was put on ice, and any hope for many of the things I had poured heart and soul into were deferred indefinitely.

It was a tough time of struggle for me. I wrestled with God over letting go of things I had unknowingly wrapped much of my identity around. When the reality finally sunk in, it was as though I heard God say, “Well done, you have completed what I have had for you here. Now you are released. Trust me for the next thing.”

I still wrestled with God in a tug of war of hurt and a sense of being stripped, and questioned why? God made it clear. I was to resign and in my spirit I was to trust God. So I took the big step of faith into the unknown.

Through a series of miracles I found myself in California a month later sitting across the table from a longtime friend. Greg had just been blessed by God significantly from the sale of his company. As we compared notes and shared hearts, we were astounded by a common ministry vision God had delivered to both of us simultaneously. Over the last month, we had both seperately sought God’s face and direction. It was undeniable that God was calling us to work together. He had delivered the identical Kingdom vision to both of us independently. It was confirmed for me when my wife was fully convinced that this was God’s will and that we were being called to the next season of service.

The challenge for us wasn’t a move from Colorado to California. The big challenge was our son. Joel was just beginning his senior year in high school and this move would mean uprooting him during his last special year with all his friends. He was gone, when we made the decision, on a missions trip to Jamaica. We agonized over breaking the news to him upon his return.

Joel came home very late and we decided to put the unavoidable discussion off until the next day. As we sat in the kitchen the next morning, Joel bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen, brimming over with excitement.

“You guys have to hear about my trip to Jamaica,” he began. “It was so awesome. I met other Christians from my school that I didn’t really know and made so many great friends. And the youth pastor asked me to be an intern this year with him. I am sooo excited!”

My heart sunk lower with every word. Every parent’s dream was coming out of his mouth. A son charged up for God, making great Christian friends, challenged to step up into leadership and excited about it.

The my wife, Cindi, looked at me with that, “you better hurry up and tell him look.”

I swallowed hard and said,”Joel I have some difficult news for you.

“What,” he said abruptly, “God told you what you are going to do next, right.”

“Yes,” I responded somberly, “He has.”

“Where,” he responded with a twinge of fearful anticipation in his voice.

“Well, its not here, we will be moving to California … but we will be near your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins,” I offered, as though that would somehow make it easier.

A long thoughtful pause followed and then Joel said, “soooo…do I have to go?” I could feel the pain and sense of loss that was rushing through his heart as he contemplated being uprooted and thrust into a new place where he knew nobody. He didn’t even really know his extended family well, after living away from all of them for 10 years.

“Well Joel, we really want to tell you the whole story because it is really pretty amazing and we are absolutely sure that God is calling us,” Cindi now spoke up in a compassionate and pleading way. “We have really prayed about this and we think that God wants us together as a family. We feel like God has something there for you too.”

He stared at the table top, head down for what seemed like eternity in silence. It was then I learned one of my biggest lessons from my son.

He slowly lifted his head and locked eyes with me. With a tear in the corner of his eye but a resolve and determination in his face he said,

“Well if God is calling us Dad, then lets go.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I was so moved so to tears that I had to leave the room to gain my composure. My wife told me later that when I left the room he stood up from the table, and as she had her head down weeping and said, “Mom, stand up, I want to hug you.”

“I can’t believe what I just heard you say Joel,” she said. “Mom, stop crying, I am going to be fine. If God has called you and dad then he is going to take care of me too.”

I was moved to tears because my son chose to align his heart with my heart. In a matter of moments, confronted with the complete upheaval of his world, he chose to give up everything to please both his heavenly father and his earthly father.

His world and dreams were as important to him as my world, that collapsed in the dust just weeks before. Where I wrestled and carried on a tug of war with God, feeling stripped and lost, my son responded in humility and selflessness, bending the knee before God in a matter of minutes.

As I reflect as a dad on that event I realize that there is an unspeakable joy when our kids align their hearts and lives to please us. That joy is ever more deep and meaningful when they align themselves to please us at great cost to themselves personally.

Did you ever stop to think that God has a love language… It is a language of submission. He experiences unspeakable joy when his kids align their hearts to please Him, no matter what the cost.

Have you told God you love Him today? Are you pliable as clay in the hand of the potter? Is he convinced at the core of His being, as He views your responses to His calls upon your life, that nothing matters to you more than Him?

Let Him know today. Speak His language of love. He has spoken it to you and does everyday through the cross. Nothing matters more to Him than you! Not even His own life!

He gave all for you…what will you give for Him?

Speaking God’s Love Language

My wife is so great! What a gift! From the time I met her she overpowered me with her joyful and contagious spirit! She has to be one of the happiest people on the planet and lights up a room when she walks in.

Today she is off in Seattle, with a couple girlfriends from work, doing what she loves best, besides being with her kids and worshiping God…you guessed it…shopping!

I don’t know what’s so great about two days of girl talk, scoping out shoes and handbags, they don’t do much for me, but for her the whole experience is huge and fills her tank!

It’s all a part of her love language, and I know for me the fringe bennies of giving her a weekend away will bring back a wife that is filled up and ready to go. It’s a great investment! When mama is happy ….everyone is happy and when mama ain’t happy ….ain’t nobody happy!

After 27 years I am learning to speak her language better. In fact along with giving her this break, after I wrap up here at the coffee shop, I will hit the “Honey Do” list today before she gets home and get a few things done that will tell her I love her and she is on the center of my radar screen.

Have you ever pondered the thought that God has a love language as well?

Have you ever asked, “What makes God feel my love for Him? What can I do to speak His language?” What warms the heart of God and affirms to Him, that, “nothing matters to me as much as you.”

I want to ponder that in the next few blogging days. Stay tuned!