In Due Season.......

I haven't taken the time the last few days to put some thoughts onto paper.......but I've had them swirling in my head, and would like to take a few moments to do so!

On my trip home from Alabama on Sunday, I have to say, the few hours of quiet were in some ways a balm! Life has been so hectic lately and the lives of the people around me has been tossed into an absolute upheaval! Or so it seems. Yet, I look at them and they truly are the greatest heroes to me because even though life has been rough, their faith has not wavered. I'm the kind of person to whom consistency matters, so this is important to me.

During the trip, at one point, my heart was overcome with gratitude one moment for the wonderful people of which my life consists of and then a few minutes later overwhelmed by the magnitude of which their lives have been affected by circumstance........and how little I am capable of to make matters better.

In the middle of all these thoughts....along with some prayer, I turned on the radio to find the beginning of a sermon by Charles Stanley. I like to hear him most of the time, so I decided I'd leave it. After a few hours of this revolving train of thought, I almost wrecked my car (figuratively :-) when I heard the title of his message. "When God Remains Silent." I had a notebook beside me and I began to jot down notes as he talked. As he began to talk and speak on this subject, I couldn't believe how it was just the way I felt. Then at the end of his description of a time where God remained silent for a time in his life, he said at the end of this worst week, a small thing happened in between his prayers that allowed him to know God was still there, He was just choosing to hold His hand back until He was ready to move.

I really have felt that God has truly been silent in the last few months in some situations that I am close to. He has had "perfect" opportunity to move His hand and has yet to do it.

While I was in Tennessee, I read a book called "The Wind that Destroys and Heals." Excellent book. Probably one of the best I've ever read. In one section of this book (the whole book was not concerning Job), the author describes Job's plight and at the very end where Job rises from the ashes, he is confronted by God in a whirlwind where God never answers the question as to why he had to suffer.....or why God didn't move his hand when Job hurt the worst. God simply gives Job 3 chapters worth of questions about himself that makes Job repentant that he'd ever doubted God could move his hand......while he remained silent.

The same wind that had destroyed Job, was the same wind that came to heal him. Yet, when Job was hurting the most, God remained silent. If I attempted to understand the ways of God....I'd lose my mind! Fortunately I trust him enough to know that his silence will not last forever....The verses that popped out to me this morning as I read in the book of Psalms reminded me of all these things all over again...hence giving the need to write them.

"......The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever."