Nerves!

This is where I wish I were today. This beautiful path is high atop Lookout Mountain, headed down to Sunset Rock.  Doesn't it look peaceful and welcoming?  Can't you imagine that it is a place to sit and talk with the Lord?  A place to escape the craziness of life and sit at the feet of Jesus? 

 

 

Do you ever need to escape?  Today my family is waiting for an answer to an important question.  It's so hard to wait!  I have carried my phone with me every step I have taken for two days.  Waiting for it to ring.  Waiting to hear what I desperately want to hear.  Still I wait.

     For the last few days we have been extra busy. There is so much to do!  We have been painting and working to get things ready for the opening of our new church which is coming up in just a little over a week.  It's one of those times in life when we run home long enough to change clothes and grab a bite to eat somewhere along the way.  It's exciting.  I don't want to miss a minute of it.  I'm tired.

     I need to sit down along the path and talk with the Lord.  It's so easy to get caught up in fear and worry when you are waiting for an answer from the Lord.  It's so easy to be busy doing things for our church, for our family, for our work....and it's even more easy to neglect time to drink from the living water provided to us, to sit in the garden and talk with the Lord.  Today I have turned on Pandora and poured through the Psalms.  "His steadfast love endures forever....His steadfast love endures forever....His steadfast love endures forever." 

     No matter what.  No matter where I am.  No matter how busy life becomes. No matter what is troubling my heart. God's love never fails.

     Today I had to face the question, what if God doesn't answer my prayer the way I am pleading him to answer?  Frankly, I don't want to think about it.  I don't like the prospect of what that would mean.  I can't imagine what it would mean.  If his answer is "no" will I stand firm and proclaim, "His steadfast love endures forever?" 

     If his answer is "no" my heart will hurt.  I won't understand.  I will ask him why.  Yet, like the song says, "I will praise you in this storm, and I will lift my hands, for you are who you are....though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm.:

 

Well, two days have passed since I wrote the paragraphs above.  We got our answer from the Lord.  He heard our cries and graciously granted our plea, and he is even providing more than we imagined.  There was crying, screaming, and even some shouting.  Celebrating the mercy of our Father.  Celebrating his affirmation that the path we were walking was indeed the path he had set before us.

    I can't help but be reminded that my heavenly Father, the God who created this universe, loves me.  He gave me this beautiful verse this morning.....

 

God saw the people of Israel - and God knew.  Exodus 2:25

 

What are you going through today?  God knows.  He knows.  You may have to wait, but rest assured that he knows.  His steadfast love endures forever.  Even when you feel forgotten, he loves you and knows.  You may have to wait, and if you do - praise him in the storm...because he knows.