EACH MOMENT

Do you like to plan things? I’m speaking in general. But I think it is a fair question. For myself the answer is yes. In my case though it isn’t so much an “anal” response to my circumstances as a desire to keep my life simple.

By that I mean if I can arrange given activities in my life so they are predictable then I don’t have to think about them. That leave me more time for the creative venues of life that as a write have more appeal to me and fit in with what I see as God’s calling on my life.

While I hardly view myself as an apostle I am reminded of the incident in the book of Acts where the disciples were having problems with spending all their time doing servant types of chores. It wasn’t that the felt above having to do the ordinary things, but they realized in their given calling, they could hardly give it the attention it deserved when they had to spend time doing routine chores. So they picked out a number of individuals to handle those issues and that allowed them time to get back to the more spiritual elements, which were critical to their role in the early church.

I only mention it because in that situation it was very important they have the freedom to plan those spiritual activities for the basic welfare of the church. And the moment of occasion in that case granted them the need to set a foundation and pace for the future of the church. So it served the Lord’s purposes.

Thus it is in some situations. A given moment can be used of the Lord to serve a greater purpose. It can heal, teach or any other number of aspects that are essential to our lives.

That is providing we are paying attention and listening when such a situation takes place. I know there are times in my life when I have to pause in given situation. At that moment I’m often more annoyed by the disruption in my plans rather than always trying to see that it might be God putting the brakes on my plans for a specific reason.

To look at each moment and find the light from the Lord that guides us in his direction can take practice. It is easy to miss. But it also well worth the effort when we do.

At the moment my wife and I are involved in a project that has had all kinds of delays for a variety of reasons. We don’t always great those moments with smiles. However there are times when later we will discover the delay served some higher purpose that just to raise our blood pressure.

So when a moment seems more like an inconvenient detour from our expectations hopefully we can pause and take a deep breath, then exhale the aggravation. Afterwards, we can thus inhale the Holy Spirit’s air of understanding. With it perhaps a joy of appreciating how god moves in all things a lot more than we sometimes appreciate. May the light of knowing be one that warms during the moments of darkness so full of too many questions and not enough answers.