Good Wednesday morning! We have the clouds, time to pray for the rain. This morning you are a starting pitcher on the baseball diamond. You have begun the game, thrown a few good pitches, quite a few bad ones, but the other team is made up of the world's all-stars and you are in real trouble. Your last pitch loaded the bases and the star among the all stars with the astounding .750 batting average is up to the plate. You look to the bullpen, but no one is warming up. You look over to the dugout, but you cannot see the manager. What is he up to? Is he too afraid to watch? You look at your fellow players arrayed beside you and they look just as lost as you feel. Now what?
You are in a wagon train with just a few other people. Again, you started off well in the gentle lands of the east and made good progress along the rivers. Firm, well-used and well-known trails led you up to the badlands, but then the trails split every which way. Without proper guidance, because in your pride you didn't bother to ask back then, you chose a trail that looked good and lashed the oxen to get them going. Now the oxen are worn down with thirst, the feed has run out, and in the best biblical 'Behold!' you are in a box canyon surrounded by a company of bandits. Who is to save the women and children now?
Finally, in honor of the anniversary: you needed to come to America from the old country. At a port in England you had enough money to choose 1st Class accommodations on any ship your heart desired. Young and full of your own strength of intellect, you look around and see a magnificent ship with four funnels. The markings and flag of the White Star lines show proudly over the quay. Surely this ship will get you and your loved ones safely to the new world of your dreams. You pay the tolls and a steward appears from nowhere to grab all of your luggage. A guide shows you to the luxury suites; you are traveling in style, brother! As a wine steward pours the first glasses to celebrate your journey, you ask the name of the ship. "RMS Titanic, sir!" comes the cheerful reply. Oh, dear...
In our lives, we may suddenly find that decisions taken when we thought we knew something do not have the results we expected today. The game is not over, but how did my team get so far behind? The trail looked good back a few days, but now where did the tracks of the wagons go? You took the biggest and best ship, but God allowed an iceberg to wander south a bit. In any situation, our plans might not turn out the way we wish. I asked God about this phenomenon which I have observed in my life, and the answer was Romans 11:32. "For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all." So that's it! Much about my past decisions was answered in that one verse. Thinking back to some of the times of decision in my life, I do not recall asking God whether I should do this or that thing, go this direction or the other. Instead, I thought that I was smart and generally knew-so-muched myself right into a tough situation. God used the situation for my good, but it's just possible there might have been a gentler way to learn those lessons too. On the other hand, we have faith that we are led by God.
In that time when the enemy surrounds with far superior forces and the game appears lost. When the lifeboats have pulled away and nothing it seems can save us. We have but one direction to look. Trapped in the box canyon, we may not hear the thunder of God's cavalry as it rides to our rescue. I asked God about this too. He said, "My cavalry is stealthier than that." God's help may not arrive until the last moment. And God's last moment is not what we see as the last moment. In whatever way, by sudden miraculous help from above, by the strength to endure, or the simple gathering of our friends in Christ, God will act in our behalf. Trust starts in the heart with God's own Holy Spirit.
Bucky
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