Ticking of the clock...

Whatever he says to you, do it.  Those were the words that Mary spoke to the servants at the Wedding in Galilee.   Mary had faith of what Jesus was.  Mary knew the purpose that her son was called for.  There was no doubt that Jesus was called for miracles in Mary’s eyes, but to other people Jesus was just another man. 

Jesus walked this earth for over 30 years as a regular man that had a deep relationship with God.   He was a kind, generous, even tempered man and I am sure was handled with great respect and admiration just as you would a person you deemed to be good.  Little did people know they were actually first hand witnesses to the way they should be living their lives.  To the Human being that we should all aspire to be.

When Mary was saying to the servants, do whatever he says to do, she was kind of showing off Jesus, which I don’t blame her for.  That’s her son, she gets the right to show him off from time to time, but you see with the comments that Jesus’s made before Mary spoke with the servants I don’t think Jesus was ready to be revealed… fully.   Jesus had just shortly before her request had said Leave it to me.  My time has not yet come.   

This leads me to wonder how many times we hurry Jesus along to deliver our plans or even the plans that Jesus has promised us.   How many times are we sitting looking at the clock saying…“Ok, Jesus, now you said you were going to do this but I still haven’t seen any manifestation of your word?”   I know if we are honest most of us do this.   I know time is one of the things I struggle with daily.

Here is what I am learning, and not the easy way I may add.  Jesus doesn’t work on our schedule.   We don’t get to wake up and say, OK Jesus, now today you are going to do this and then this and oh by the way I really would like  you to add this to the list.   Jesus laughs at us.  Ever hear the saying we make plans and God laughs.  I think it’s true.  I have been saying for years, God has to have a sense of humor… and I think he does.   

Time seems to be a really big factor in our lives.  We are all so preoccupied with time.  I need five minutes to go here, five minutes to answer an email, five minutes to send a text, five minutes to feed my dogs, five minutes to feed myself and five minutes to rush to the next thing on the list and if I am lucky five minutes to spend with God.   What’s five minutes?  Before you know it the five minutes become thirty minutes and now we are even more panicked than we were before and we start to push out the things that we just don’t have time for, which usually ends up being God.  

We really need to slow down and start realizing that shutting off your phone and not taking it to the bathroom with you, we all do it, isn’t going to end the world.  What happened to silence and taking time to sit and be still.  We need this.  Whether this is happening when you are driving to work or when you wake up in the morning, but at some point in the day, we must take time to be still, connect with ourselves and more importantly with God.  

Now, this doesn’t change Jesus’s time frame of delivering you but maybe it will give you peace to handle the waiting with a different frame of mind.  We can’t always walk through life like the prodigal son and say “give me” we really need to come to the place in life where we are saying to God “make me”.    Make me what you need me to be.  Make me more like you.  Make me a kinder person.  Make me a person who walks in your peace and grace.    There is a transition in life that happens when you go from “give me” to “make me”.    There is a maturity that comes with that passing of time.   This doesn’t take away the “give me’s” of life, but it makes them less frequent of an occurrence. 

What I am learning is that God will never give you what you are not ready for.  We can beg and plead and cry and shout as much as we want but if we are not ready for it, God is not giving it to you.   

We learn the most in the transition periods of what we don’t like about ourselves and how we can be better, and more Christ like.   If you look back on your life to the times that you wanted something so badly and you didn’t get it, do you realize now why you didn’t get it?   Do you realize the exact thing that you wanted so badly was actually the thing that God used to teach you something?   Or, and I love these times… did you get over the point of wanting that thing so badly that you could actually see it for what it is and thank God for not giving it to you. 

I have had a few of those moments in life.  I have wanted something so badly and when I didn’t get it was crushed and upset with God for not giving it to me and then realized it was one of the greatest learning tools for me.  I was also very happy God didn’t give it to me, as it wasn’t what was meant for me. 

God will at times use situations in our lives to break us open and strip us down so we have to lean on him to come back together.  He will use those moments to impart wisdom into you and grow your faith and confidence in him.  

Just because you don’t receive the thing you are waiting for on your time frame or at all doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you or isn’t listening to you.   What it means is that he is doing exactly that.  He loves you so much that he’s not going to give his treasure away.   He is creating you to be the best you that you can be and sometimes changes are extremely painful but he knows what he’s doing. 

There will be times in our lives that we will ask God for something and just as Jesus did with Mary, he will answer your request immediately and then there will be times when it takes a little longer for your answer to come.   Do your best to stay grounded in the love of Jesus and understand that your growth comes in the times in between receiving and asking.  

Try not to look at the clock and keep God on your time frame.  Ask to be delivered of time and open up to the clock that God works on.  His ways are higher than our ways and his knowledge is complete while ours is limited.  If there is anyone who we should be confident in placing our time, it is God.    Remember, that Faith is the assurance of things we hope for but the proof of things we do not see.