The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Waiting. Submitting. Identity. Humility. These are just some of the lessons we're learning as we plant City Church Huntington with seeds of faith, prayer, relationship, and dreams of disciples and churches multiplied for God's glory. Waiting. Tom Petty pretty much nailed it when he said, "the waiting is the hardest part." Waiting for contracts on houses we wanted to sell months ago, waiting to land the right jobs, waiting for closings to be scheduled when our U-Hauls are already packed with all our earthly possessions is hard. Waiting on contractors to show up, waiting endlessly for the DMV line to inch forward, waiting for your husband to finish up the kitchen cabinets so you can finally unpack your dishes (hypothetically speaking of course!) is hard. Waiting isn't fun. People rarely ever say, "I wish _____ was further away," we always want the object of our desire to come now, to arrive sooner. One thing we're learning as individuals and as a church is to wait on God and trust the purpose and wisdom in His timing. His ways are not are ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And that's a good thing. Looking back, if we'd sold our homes when we wanted to, moved when we planned to, started working when we would have liked to... a lot of good things would not have taken place. We'd have missed family time together, we'd have spent months working 2 hours away from our family, we would never have met the people God intended for us to meet on the other path. God's is always on time. He's never early, but He's never too late. You can trust Him. Submitting. When life takes a turn you didn't expect it's easy to be disappointed. But you can't stay there. It won't do any good. One of the things we've been learning is to take what God's given us and move forward, choosing to trust. Choosing faith. Choosing to find the good God has hidden in the disappointment. For example, when your main sewer line fails just a few weeks after moving in and your basement floods and the insurance doesn't cover it, you take the lumps, pay someone to dig a 10 foot deep trench the entire length of your yard and jack hammer your basement. Then you stop feeling sorry for yourself after a day or so and you share the story of what God has done in your life, how He's redeemed your marriage, and why He has brought you here, with every person that this plumbing catastrophe brings you into contact with. And you rejoice when one of the contractors you share your story with comes back and asks you to pray for him in confidence. Or, say the job you've been in the hunt for over the past 4 months all of sudden comes up empty when you just "knew that you knew you were going to get it." All that anticipation and effort nullified and cut short by one tap on the iPhone. How can one email, just a handful of sentences and less than 100 words, cause such disappointment and self-doubt? "Back to square one. Will I ever find a job? Can we afford the house we're getting ready to purchase?" That's when we find out, that in our weakness, HE is strong. That's when we're forced to depend, not on our strengths and ability to provide, but on His unfailing love and providence. When we moved to Huntington on July 5th, I didn't have a job. When we walked out of our closing the same day I had the phone number in hand of my future boss. God provides in His timing. Not always how we'd like. Not necessarily when we'd like. But He provides away. Like my friend, Jon Connor, says, "What God orders, He pays for." Identity. Breadwinner. Minister. It's hard to take the knocks Satan throws your way when you are used to being the provider for your family and the current plan seems to be for you to wait to find a job. That leaves a person with time to think and ample opportunity for Satan to try and creep in. It can be hard for anyone, but it's particularly hard for a hard driver, get=it-done personality. That is why finding our identity in Christ is so important. We are not what we do. We are who God says we are. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!! Going from a comfortable office desk, a bottomless supply of coffee, leisurely lunches, days dotted with appointments, and a 27" iMac at your disposal to days filled with sawdust, paint covered hands, and aching muscles you weren't sure you still had is a change to say the least. Now imagine, this construction job that replaced your cushy ministry position just happens to take place (more days than not) working inside of the largest church in town, around people working jobs much like the one you left when you decided to move to plant a church. That creates a window for the accuser to highlight the ironic contrast in the two situations. That opens the door for Satan to whisper, like he did to Eve, "Did God really say?" "Do you really believe that every Christian is a missionary and every church member a minister?!" The solution is found in His Word. In Community. In His presence. As much as it feels like a giant step back to be wielding a paint brush instead of keyboard, the undeniable evidence of God at work here reminds me: "Don't grow weary in doing good, because at the right time you will reap a spiritual harvest if you don't give up!" I have to remember daily, that my identity is not in what I do; my identity is in who God says that I am. My worth is not derived from the size of my paycheck. My worth is determined by what someone was willing to pay for me. And that someone, my Father, paid all that He had when He sent Jesus to ransom my life on the cross! Humility. I have suits hanging in the closet, suits that I bought for the job I thought I was going to have, that I see as I'm putting on work cloths and boots each morning. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever have occasion to wear those suits. I walk my kids to school and pass parents in business casual attire and wonder if they take me seriously in my trucker hat, work t-shirt, and dirt-crusted dungarees. I love to meet with people and make connections and strategize but there's been little time for that when the work schedule doesn't allow for a lunch break. I love to create videos, graphics, update sites, and write blog posts but without a computer I felt like those skills were useless. (God has since provided these things through others and in better ways than I could have planned it out, and in it I've seen more of His faithfulness.) The lesson seems to be God saying to us, "You say that you believe 'prayer is the work.' You say you believe 'small is big and slow is fast.' You say 'don't despise the day of small beginnings.' Now it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Do you trust Me? Do you really believe I can accomplish great things and build my church through a few families from Lexington? Through men without seminary training. Through a church with "no building." Do you really believe that the Word of God plus the Spirit of God in and through the people of God are enough to do the work of God?" My answer, our answer, to this question is "yes!" Yes! We believe it. Our God has never failed us. Not once. Our God is faithful. Just last week we hosted our first Worship Gathering/City Group at the Littles and God brought 6 new adults to join the original 6 of us from Lexington! God has answered prayers recent and some from long past by bringing about more unity in the church, stirring a passion for disciple making among pastors hungry for answers to feed and grow their congregations, creating connections with neighbors and co-workers that are clearly God-ordained, giving us faithful friends already working in the trenches here in Huntington to bless us and for us to encourage, and bringing a young man from Lexington as an adopted and beloved part of the family. Reading through Acts again over the last month I'm reminded that God doesn't carry out His will in ways we would choose or understand. Paul was often redirected on his missionary journeys. He was often called far afield from where he had set his mind to go. But he was willing and obedient and always remained submitted to God's plan. To be honest, I've never really liked the closing chapters of Acts. They can feel so repetitive, like one endless courtroom transcript detailing Paul's successive appeals to Festus and Agrippa. (sounds like a bad Seinfield episode and a bag of BBQ chips) But reading it afresh with our D-Group (made up of some awesome men of God and leaders of the church in Huntington that He has united) has imprinted on my mind the importance of trusting in God's sovereignty. God knew the lesson I needed to learn and the story that would help me learn it. Paul knew, thanks to a dramatic prophet with a belt, that his trip to Jerusalem would result in him being bound in chains. But he went anyway. Paul knew God had called him to Rome, the cultural epicenter and an ideal place to take the Gospel to the Gentiles far and wide, and he wisely trusted God's path to get him there. His peace and trust were tried but not broken through false accusations, riots, imprisonment, storms, and shipwrecks. But in the end, God got Paul to Rome where he enjoyed a fruitful ministry. So the delays and disappointment we've experienced don't compare with prison. They don't even remotely compete with shipwrecks. Does that make them any easier? Any less significant opportunities for learning to trust in God? No. Whatever you are facing in life, God has a plan to use it for your good and His glory if you'll let Him. God says, "look, I'm doing a new thing. Do you see it?" -----

Father, Open our eyes to see what you're doing in our lives. Help us see past our circumstances to where You want to bring Kingdom advances. It's been said that at any one time You are doing about a billion things and we're aware of about 3 of those things. Father, please open our eyes. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Then, Lord, give us hearts willing and ready to obey and follow where You are leading. Your name and Your renown are the desire of our hearts. We want to live to know You and make You known. In Jesus' name, Amen