LONG BEGINNINGS

Another journey beginnings. It is like a staircase one climbs and you look forward to ascending each step if for no other reason than being able to rise passed the beginning. The mind conjures the image of the journey pass the original point. All the thoughts brew as a testimony to the conviction that there is a logical relationship between cause and effect. That if I do A then B will happen.

Then reality intrudes upon the theory. And instead of moving on to the next level of experience we feel stuck at the same step.

In a more practical vein perhaps it would be like in one's spiritual experience. We assume that we start at a given level of faith and spirituality and believe with enough time we will be able to graduate to a more mature point of relationship.

How many times we discover that in reality we have yet to truly rise above first step of a given part of life. That can be very discouraging at times. It can even be harder to accept as reality too in terms of our pride.

I feel God often keeps us in a given situation for a variety of reasons. He may be seeking to help us learn a lesson we need to know or testing our obedience.

And in our haste to get "beyond" the infancy level of a given experience we get impatient to feel more "mature." So in our rush for that next step we ignore or miss some relevant thing we need to know.

Spirituality, like our relationship with the Lord is forever. And if we look at the nature of how God deals with man we often see how it does take a long time in some cases for us to learn what God intended. I am reminded of how in more dramatic cases such as with Moses, God kept him in exile for 40 years in order to prepare him for leading the people out of Egypt.

I'm grateful that is the time for when how long it takes for all of us to learn our lessons. Still even with the disciples they were with the Lord three years of his ministry before his crucifixion. And we know from the book of Acts that there were times they still had things to learn after the resurrection.

So why we assume in our calling, which is most likely not as overwhelming as being chosen as Moses or the Apostles were called, but it still takes longer than a week. None of that makes us necessarily happy or content with the process, but it doesn't change it either.

However, I do take solace in the fact that God is merciful and long suffering with us. Even when we fail him and stupid he so often tarries with us. For that I am grateful. And I just keep reminding myself when I leave I'm having to take the same lesson over again that it is better than not having to learn it at all. Walking by faith is still preferable to racing by one's own strength.