Nature is waking up all around us. God’s timing this perfectly.
Promise is coming, it’s undetected yet, but it’s coming. Just like Spring, when we thought it would never get here, it will arrive.
God is at work underneath all this. We need to sink down and tend our roots and do the unseen work of prayer while God does His unseen work in hearts.
Heart work takes time. We have to let God get to the root of our hearts and heal. Ourselves first, then our families, communities, country, and world…He works from the inside out…so it has to start with us…with me. Growing roots is hard. We have to push down against the soil and make space. We have to make space in all our swirling thoughts for God. We have to push down against the hard established lies we have believed. We have to make space for confession, we have to make space for belief, we have to sink our roots down and soak up the Truth.
In life there is very little arrival and lots of waiting. How you arrive always depends on how you wait. What we will be depends on what we do right now in the quiet.
This year for Lent I decided that I would ask God to help me give up lies. Almost 40 days ago I told God that I would ask Him every morning to Search my heart, and test my anxious thoughts, and see if there is any offensive way in me (psalm 139). I feel like I just heard God chuckle. This is the month I am asking Him to test my anxious thoughts? I mean it’s good God has an indefinite amount of time on His hands, but this isn’t what I had in mind.
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not at they pretend to be” (Jeremiah 17:9&10 Message).
God gets to the root of things, to our hearts. He treats who we really are underneath. There is no pretending. We have this opportunity for God to heal the root of things, to let our roots sink deeper into faith.
When what we see with our eyes grows dim, we sink roots into faith.
When convenience is scarce, we sink roots deeper into purpose.
When favorite restaurants are scarce, we sink roots into real meals with family.
When meaningless chatter is scarce we sink roots in real conversation.
When human contact is scarce, we sink roots in heart connection with God...we pray.
I can’t help thinking about what might spring up from this, about what God is doing underground. He has given us time to prepare, to sink in, to make ourselves space for our roots to sink down into the truth and faith. Easter is coming, God is working, and there is nothing this virus can do to stop it.
In life there is very little arrival and lots of waiting. How you arrive always depends on how you wait. What we will be depends on what we do right now in the quiet.