Today in class we listened to a song. I don't remember the name of the song, but it was about a conversation between the singer and God, and God missed the singer and the time they used to spend together. The singer kept busying himself with different missions, but forgot to spend time with God and fill himself up with His Holy Spirit, and so the missions weren't as fruitful.
Anyways, one of the first lyrics in the song mentions finding God in a familiar place. Next to God is another familiar place, but this seat is empty. It's the seat that the singer used to sit in when hanging out with God.
My imagination took this and ran with it. I imagined God hanging out on a bench, and the singer walking up to God on the bench, motioning him to sit down. The bench was a bench at a bus stop. They were waiting for the bus.
Then I started thinking some more. On Monday, one of the main points of the teachings was to not get ahead of God's plan. So I was imagining myself and God sitting on this bus bench. We're talking about different things, and I ask God where we're going. He tells me all about it, and I get so excited to go there that I want to leave right away. I jump up off the bench and start jogging in the direction of the place we're going to go.
God says, "No, wait. Come back." "Why God? I want to go right now. The place you described sounds amazing. I don't want to wait any longer." "Yes. It is amazing, but it's a long ways away. If you run there you will be very tired when you arrive and you won't be able to enjoy it. It is better if we take the bus."
So I came back and sat with God on the bench and we chatted until the bus came. When it did, I followed God onto the bus and we set off to our destination.
Sometimes God tells me cool things. These things are so cool that I want them to happen right away. When I start to head towards them, I get frustrated when God tells me to wait. There are many reasons why it's a good thing to wait, and in this example it's good because waiting will make the journey much easier.
I hate waiting for long term things. I may have said this already, but my least favorite story in the Bible is when Abraham has to wait 25 years for his promised son. 25 years would drive me insane. So I really appreciate all these different things God is telling me about waiting, and all the different ways that waiting can be useful.
Being of vivid imagination myself, I too took this image and ran with it. Except for me, God and I are not taking the bus, we are indeed jogging. I want to run down the highway, which is in a direct line to our destination. God, however, wants us to go off train into the mountains.
ReplyDeleteI don't like this, because the terrain is hilly and hard, rocky and precarious. However when I follow him, I realize how beautiful the journey is - there are incredible views, and running up and down hills makes my heart thump unlike anything I would have encountered on the road or sitting in a bus. We meet interesting people, see all kinds of wild animals, and it rains for a week and we have to figure out how to build a shelter and a fire and hunt for food.
I realize that not only is our destination awesome, but the journey there is filled with adventure and exciting sites, all of which I would have missed if we had simply gone straight from point A to point B.
Yay! That's awesome!! Hahaha, you would totally jog along with Jesus. I can just picture Him with his WWJD sweat band on his forehead.
ReplyDeleteI love reminders that Jesus wants me to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, since I'm so destination focused. So, thank you! :D