Time-out

God uses loneliness, solitude, a trough in your life, a seemingly unproductive phase, to build your spiritual resources, to help you strengthen yourself in Him. This seemingly unproductive period, or loneliness, in which time doesn’t seem to move, is given to you for a reason. God gives you less physical or worldly stuff to do, less people to emotionally engage with, specifically so that you can channel your energies towards spiritual development.

So when you’re pushed into a corner with little to do e.g. a time of unemployment, or sickness, separation from a loved one, a suspension from your normal routine, God’s actually giving you that time to build yourself spiritually, find that spiritual armour and practice using it. So that when it’s time to go to war for Him, you’ve learnt how to use that armour: you’ve figured out how to work it and put it to effective use.

Max Lucado says, “Rush your giant with a God-saturated soul.” Your soul can be God-saturated only if you take time to soak Him up. The fallow periods in our lives are the best times to do so.

Two instances which effectively illustrate how God uses loneliness or low phases to build us up spiritually can be seen in David’s life:

*When he was tending sheep: sitting out there on his own, while his brothers got to do cool stuff. Alone, with no one to talk to, that was probably the time he got grounded and rooted in his Maker. And because David’s spiritual resources were so deep, he was able to tap into them in times of trouble.

*When he was fleeing from Saul: hiding in caves; an outcast, completely, utterly alone. He clung to God during this time, trusting Him to work things out.

Because David fuelled his spiritual tank during his sheep-watching days, he knew where to turn, whom to cry to, during his hiding-in-the-cave days.

So when God inserts a time-out in your life which you never planned or wished, it’s because He knows you need to stock up on reserves, build up your resources and learn to use that heavenly armour for times ahead. Because David had resources to tap, he’s the only one who could say of Goliath, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” He was the only one who hadn’t lost sight of His Maker. The only one with no illusions about his almighty, omnipotent Father, His resources or His might.

For feminists to chew on...

Before I proceed, I'd like to extend the disclaimer that I have absolutely nothing against feminists. I used to be an ardent one myself. And currently, although I wouldn't categorize myself a feminist, I do retain certain parts of the ideology.

The Bible readings this Sunday included Ephesians 5:21-32. I must admit that this piece of Scripture used to rankle the feminist in me. Wives being exhorted to submit to their husbands in absolutely everything (vs.24: Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit fin everything to their husbands), was hard to swallow. The husband being the head of the wife, etc.

However, we need to understand what's required of the husband before hastening to react. Verse 25 says "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her". The sermon on Sunday explained that this love is:

       i.caring

       ii.unerring

       iii.sacrificial

This love needs to be exactly the kind that Christ shows the church. How easy would it be for a man to love and unconditionally care for a wife who has been repeatedly unfaithful and stubborn, or take the blame of her wrongdoing on himself? Verse 28 further instructs husbands to love their wives as their own bodies. He can't beat or abuse her. He needs to care for her in the sacrificial and unerring way that Christ cares for the church. Wives need to be sacrificial in their decisions, husbands need to be sacrificial in their love. That's quite a demand!

This isn't to undermine the demand made of the wife. But if you think the wife's got a raw deal, the husband hasn't got it any easier! What's demanded of either partner may be different, but by no means unequal.

PSALM 100

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 

2 Worship the LORD with gladness; 
come before him with joyful songs. 

3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; 
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; 
give thanks to him and praise his name. 

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; 
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Verse 3 calls us to know God. If we only knew the magnitude and extent of His majesty and beauty, we'd take Him less for granted, we'd realize how unworthy we are of the grace He extends to us. We'd realize fully that nothing has any purpose apart from bringing Him praise and glorifying His name. That's probably why when any of the prophets saw a vision wherein they entered the presence of the Lord, they fell face down.

Verse 3 also says that it is He who made us and we are His.Yet He gives us the choice of exercising our free will! We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. He keeps us alive, well, kicking. Anything we have or are is because of Him. Yet we live on His pasture, enjoy blessings He gives and turn around and question Him, rebel or complain.

Therefore the Psalmist calls us to know our God. That would result in us naturally bringing Him obedience, thanks and praise.

When Naomi urged her daughters in law Orpah and Ruth to return to their homes and start their lives anew, Orpah left, but Ruth didn’t.

But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!” Ruth 1:16-17 (MSG version)

Ruth’s resolve to stay with her mother-in-law was a duty she could have easily shirked. Especially when Naomi herself released both Ruth and Orpah to find husbands for themselves. But Ruth rejected the easy way out and did what duty called her to do.

How often do we do our duty by others? When the going gets tough or the future gets bleak, we tend to let go or find greener pastures. Sometimes having a certain person in your life looks pointless. There seems nothing constructive stemming from that relationship: nothing except drudgery. But when that relationship calls us to legally/formally/spiritually fulfil a duty by that person, we need to be there for them. To fulfil God’s purpose. In their lives, in our own, and in the cosmos.

Sometimes physical fatigue, our own problems, preoccupation, work etc gets in the way of fulfilling our duty by others: lending a helping hand, listening patiently to a friend, helping a sibling with some work, running a boring errand. We need to allow God to use us for the purpose we’re supposed to fill in each others’ lives. To touch, support, heal, comfort people in ways and times we would never have imagined, but God intended all along. Being available instruments for God works towards a bigger picture too. Had Ruth not returned with Naomi, she would never had met Boaz, married him or produced the lineage that led to King David, and ultimately Christ our Saviour. Ruth’s choice to fulfil her duty by Naomi worked towards fulfilling a prophesy.

Gideon was called by God to lead the Israelites at a time when they were once more being oppressed by some nation: the Midianites, this time round. The Bible says that Lord allowed this to happen because the Israelites had (again) turned away from their living, eternal God, to worship and sacrifice to the pagan gods of the surrounding nations.

The Midianite oppression was so severe that the Israelites were reduced to living like refugees, in caves and makeshift shelters, fugitives on their own land. Their crops and cattle were destroyed season after season by the Midianites, so that the they were left utterly impoverished. Moving away from God's will, disobeying Him, sinning literally reduces us to the same condition as the Israelites. 

When I let sin into my life, it becomes the boss of me. My life slips out of my control and sin dominates it. An addiction I may have, an illicit relationship, jealousy or anger I harbour against someone. 

*The Israelites were on the run. So am I: from being found out, from being judged. Lying about how I've spent my time or money, wondering if I've been spotted in a particular place, or with a particular person, wondering if people are talking behind my back, worried about losing a position or person. Perpetually in fear.

*The Israelites were impoverished. So am I. There's no success in my life because sin sucks all my resources. I spend my time, energy, money to feed my sin. Sin reaps all the dividends, eats up any profits and doesn't allow any progress in  my life. I probably fail my course or lose my job, alienate myself or my loved ones leave me, because of the sin I refuse to turn out of my life.

*The Israelites were oppressed and subjugated. So am I. I'm rendered helpless: at the mercy of that addiction, or a raging temper, or a caustic, uncontrollable tongue, or a relationship. 

*Life becomes purposeless: I lose my focus, my priorities, my calling.

 It's my life and all the promises the Lord holds out to me are mine to claim. But sadly, when sin takes over, it straitjackets me to it. I stop living, I barely manage to survive. Just like the Israelites. The land was their own, the harvest theirs to reap. But they were fugitives on their very own land. Hiding in caves, trying desperately just to survive. Living in makeshift shelters, not houses. Threshing their own grain, grown by their own toil, in secret. 

When we let sin into our lives, the fullness of life is lost and we're forced to live a constricted, pathetic existence. In fear, in hiding, purposeless and deprived. That's why sin is so not worth it. It makes you a refugee in the land of YOUR inheritance.