Peace & Presence

Whether working furiously waiting on that next job promotion, waiting expectantly for Mr. or Miss Wonderful to come into our lives, or waiting for the healing of a chronic illness, waiting is not for sissies. It takes great patience and perseverance to wait well.

For me, this waiting became real as I trudged through the woods, listening to God’s still voice regarding my husband’s perpetual suffering. The beauty and silence around me struck me. My natural surroundings declared the glory and sovereignty of a Mighty God who had everything under control. Nonetheless, my heart cried, “When, Lord, will my beloved husband find relief? When will You answer my prayers for him? This wait is so hard!”

The Bible says, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” This verse encouraged me in three ways. First, God is outside of time, and we are not. He invented time for His glory and the good of His creation. That is why God never changes in His love or care for us. He sees the beginning and end and knows what we need to get there.

Second, God knows that although He has fashioned us in His image, we are but dust and can only learn perseverance, character, and hope through suffering and the passing of time. Providentially, God has ordained that we need time to grow closer to Him and more like Him.

Third, God’s Word says that with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. Although the waiting seems endless to us, it is like a drop in a bucket to God.

The process God takes us through as we wait on Him is for our good and His glory alone. Pray that He will make you strong so you will dare to wait on His perfect timing, not your own.

It was the sweetest thing. A YouTube video showed two toddlers, probably three or four years old, running down a sidewalk. Their arms were wide open, and they giggled with excitement to greet one another. You’d have thought they’d not seen each other for months. The video caption said, “They just played together earlier in the week.” The kids embraced and hugged multiple times, and I thought, Why can’t we all love one another like that?

My cousin posted a photo of her hand holding her mother’s. It was especially sweet, knowing that her mother changed addresses just minutes later. And I thought, Why can’t we all love one another like that?

John shared Jesus’ command to love at least four times throughout his gospel, and every time, the emphasis was to love others as He loved. John certainly saw the many sides of grace within this command as well—both as Jesus practiced love and later as John and the other disciples learned to extend this.

Jesus taught them that love is truly a cornerstone of obedience. No one expressed this better than Christ, whether He walked with the disciples, dined with the sinners, healed the sick, or took in the joy of children. Still, John quotes Jesus by repeating the word “new.” Jesus echoed the Scripture from the old and reminded us that what He was sharing was kainen, or a new, refreshed, renewed commandment for love.

If we could love like those giggling toddlers or as my cousin loved her dying mother. If we could close our eyes to the hard side of others and genuinely show love. Imagine laying aside our preconceived notions about the homeless man on the street and seeing him as Christ would. What a better place our world would be.

Love isn’t always easy. There are always those deemed unloveable, but Christ looks at what we could be and loves us into change. Love is hard, but when given freely, it bounces back and hits us with a rush of joy.

Love new Be refreshed and renewed in Christ. A new command He gives us. Love as He loved us. If only we would love like Jesus.

I taught school in rural Oregon for several years. One of the families at our church had a rebellious teenage daughter who began to identify with her secular, drug-using step-mom instead of her Christian, single mom. A sudden job loss caused the mom to have to move away, and her daughter chose to stay behind and live with local friends.

While that tore the family apart, the Lord raised up a woman in our town who welcomed the girl as her own. The teen began to call the woman “Mom” and found stability and purpose anew. I’m sure the girl’s birth mother was crushed to be replaced by a stranger, but what a relief she must have felt to see her daughter straighten up and pursue a healthy life.

Similarly, I have wondered how Jesus’ brothers felt when He gave His mom to His young disciple, John, at the foot of the cross. We know from Scripture that Jesus’ brothers did not initially believe in Him and scorned His ministry.

When differences in values, beliefs, and expectations tear a family apart, how do we cope? Jesus acted. Knowing the agony Mary was suffering while seeing her firstborn tortured to death, Jesus tucked her under the loving care of His tender-hearted disciple.

We don’t know how Jesus’ brothers felt about Jesus giving their mom’s care to someone else. We know that after Jesus’ resurrection, they were praying in the upper room, along with Mary and the disciples. They had finally believed in Jesus. Tradition holds that Mary moved to Ephesus with John, who provided for her until her death. Ephesus may be where the good doctor Luke encountered her and transcribed her story in his gospel.

Jesus practiced adoption, giving his own mother to a new son. In fact, Jesus died so that God could adopt us into His family. Jesus always provides space for repentance, salvation, and new direction.

In places of unresolved family brokenness, look for Jesus’ grace, adoption plans, and provision. 

The mere mention of Little League and outfields conjures up memories of that young family member gazing into the yonder while manning the position in brand-new baseball cleats. Inevitably, the child at bat, who has struck out the last three times, connects and sends the baseball directly toward our prospect. He redirects his attention, not because of the crack of the bat or the whizzing of the ball, but by the thud on the ground as it narrowly misses his forehead.

Often, our position, while proper, does not match our attention to the circumstances. After the disciples returned home from an empty tomb, Mary gazed into the place where Jesus should have been. Dead bodies do not move themselves. When she pivoted, Mary unknowingly encountered the resurrected Jesus while she wept. Jesus then identified Himself by calling her by name and relayed her instructions to inform the brethren of His soon ascension.

Despite Mary’s close relationship with Jesus, she eyed an empty tomb while she wept. Spiritual audits reveal our tendency to focus on apparent emptiness. Instead of recognizing our Savior’s presence enthroned at the right hand of the Father, we fixate on sickness, depravity, lostness, unconcern, and death—the empty tomb. These everyday sepulchers evidence the frailty of the flesh but can also distract us from absorbing our hope in the Sunday resurrection—our present view.

Our Savior often reminds us of our identity in Him and our relationship with Him. We then recognize His call to action as duty and privilege. A Christian can often be caught looking into the tomb by our unconscious testimony, painting gloom and doom while we survey the condition of the world.

Jesus once said that no one who puts his hand to the plow should look back. If they do, they are unfit for service in His kingdom. Our histories contain the tomb’s emptiness and separation from the Savior, but more so, encompass our testimony of transition into life through His grace and mercy.

Learn to cultivate your spiritual gardens by turning to Christ’s presence as you relay His position and plan to others. Your service is not in the sepulcher. 

As we venture into another New Year, we have a clear calendar—a clean slate to start things fresh and anew. Committing to new diets and exercise plans, starting new jobs or retirement, dreaming about new travel plans, and launching new hobbies are just a few. We can build new relationships or pledge to work better at old ones.

We may want to mend our ways, put aside bad habits, or face up to sins where we have shown weakness. As much as the apostle Peter loved the Lord and pledged his heart to His teaching, he denied his Lord in moments of weakness. In fact, because of fear, Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times. Immediately, Peter was crushed and heartbroken. But he pulled himself together, admitted his failure, and determined to overcome flaws and fears.

Peter became a solid rock—a force to reckon with—and helped lay the foundation for spreading the gospel in the early church. God gave him a second chance. Peter didn’t give up and quit. His love for Jesus and the good news of God’s saving grace motivated him to move forward in step with God. He claimed victory over his failures.

God is a God of second chances. Many times—most of the time, but not always—God will help us overcome our fears, sins, and failures. Not everyone will get a second chance, but if you are reading this, you still have time.

Ask God to do a new work in your life during this New Year.