Romans 8:18-25: Each Gap, Each Groaning Is A Signal Fire For Hope

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. - Romans 8:18-25

Suffering is meant to teach us. First, it teaches that we have something in common with everything else. We are frustrated and the whole world is frustrated. It isn't working the way it should be. We aren't working the way we should be.  Things aren't going the way they should be going. We can watch things happen and we have an innate sense about what ought to happen. But it doesn't-and we are frustrated. That is true of the world and it is true of our inner selves and even our own paths. We try hard and it fails, or we don't exert full effort and it still succeeds. We want to discipline ourselves but we still do-again and again-what we wish we didn't do. But Paul says that this frustration is pointing us forward to the day when we are liberated from "bondage to decay" and brought into the freedom and glory of children of God.

Why does God do this to us? To me? To teach us how to hope. If everything just worked out all right. then we would never learn the key lesson that we are dependent on God. We would just assume that everything would work out as it ought just as a part of the way the universe worked and never look up to the God who created that universe. So when things don't work out right, we "groan inwardly" and "eagerly await"-the two sides of the coin that is hope. 

It teaches us a second lesson: patience. There is a gap between the mess that we and the world are in and the resolution the mess and we don't know how big that gap is. The not knowing, along with the gap, is the training ground for patience.

Each gap, each groaning- they are signal fires to draw our focus to hope in God's goodness.

Luke 8:15: Perseverance Is Patience Prolonged

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. - Luke 8:15

Paul says that "suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character and character, hope." (Romans 5:3-4). I have wondered whether being annoyed counts as "suffering" in this context. Because I am often annoyed. :-) It doesn't take a coliseum full of hungry lions or midnight raids and secret trials. A slow-moving buffet line or a shopping cart angled across the aisle of a grocery store will do it easily and with a lot less...fuss. l often mentally catalog ways that people could optimize their handling of a tedious situation to make it easier for other people. I am easily annoyed and, therefore, I am on the fast track to hope and saint-hood, right?

What I have found instead is that fostering annoyance or impatience leads me to be a more irritable and impatient person. And when I reflect on what I am saying (silently or out loud) and thinking (loudly) about other people in these circumstances, I find I am not a person whom I can admire.

So I have begun to do four things over the past few months:

1. Deliberately choose slower options, such as slower lanes of traffic or longer check-out lines. I call this the "discipline of the longest line". It is a means of fighting my me-first, critique-filled attitude and a means of testing where I am in this process.
2. Keep a tally of the number of times that I am impatient with people in these types of situations, 
3. Talk with God each time to discuss why I felt so entitled and in a hurry and 
4. Discuss this process with some that I trust. 

Why? Because I don't like the type of person I am when I am impatient. Because I am chronically in a hurry even when I have plenty of time. Because my wife and good friends see it also.

It's early days, so nothing is settled. I have gone from a high of about 18 or 19 incidents in a week to a record low of 4 this past week. Thanks to God's work through this, I am doing better in traffic and at stores, but I have found new areas. I didn't even know how irritable I am in buffet lines (12 "incidents" in one evening!) or airport security. Each time is a prompt to reset myself before God:

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

I hope that these seasons of patience ("perseverance") in the little things produces the harvest Jesus talked about. As farmers know, no harvest ever came without perseverance and perseverance consists of day-after-day patience in the same direction as God does his life-changing work.

But with character, there is hope. Hope that I can actually be different. Hope that I can actually be the person that Christ imagines in me.

Psalm 40: Waiting Is Active

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. - Psalm 40:1

Around my house, I would not be characterized as a person who likes to wait. I'm usually the first person in the car. I'm usually the one who has timed things down to the minute. I am the one who has comments about those people in restaurants who only make up their mind what to order when they've reached the counter.

For me, waiting is not a passive thing--waiting is active. I must consciously restrain myself from fidgeting, pacing, or grumbling. When waiting, I am full of nervous energy. I feel uncomfortable in the nothing periods before the something happens. In a word, I am impatient.

While I have become more capable at restraining the outward signs of my impatience, inwardly I am still focused on the then rather than the now--a bubbling cauldron of anticipation. Rather than being patient, I have adopted the appearance of stoicism.

Recently, I have started to watch how I respond to waiting, not outwardly, but inwardly. Sometimes, I just bubble - replaying my plans or worries or frustrations. Sometimes, I try blankness, a mental state with deliberate lack of focus. Sometimes, I try to distract myself by engaging my attention through some small chore, activity, or FaceBook or a game--keeping busy.

But these activities waste much of the value of waiting. Many times God can't seem to get a word in edgewise because I am so busy. So he introduces a wait into my life, so I can hear him. Then I promptly ruin a perfectly good waiting period by finding ways to fill it.

Look at the things David was able to do during his waiting period:

1. Learn a new song from God (Ps. 40:3). 
2. Avoid spiritual shortcuts (Ps. 40:4). 
3. Take a break from doing stuff for God and, instead really, hear from God (Ps. 40:6). 
4. center himself on God's agenda rather than his own (Ps. 40:7-8).
5. Encourage others (Ps. 40:9-10). 
6. Talk honestly with God about his problems, including the ones that were self-inflicted. (Ps. 40:12ff).

When I notice that I am struggling with waiting (I don't always notice it when its happening), I try to pull back and use the opportunity God is giving me.

Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. - Proverbs 16:32

Genesis 41:1: Can't We Speed Things Up Here? (Or, Two Years is Too Long)

“Second fiddle! Without a doubt. I can get any number to play first violin, but to find one who plays second violin with as much enthusiasm is a real problem.  Of course, second French horn or second flute would be similar.  And yet, if no one plays second fiddle, we have no harmony.” - Leonard Bernstein, when asked the most difficult instrument to play.

Jesus challenges how we work as an employee. Under workplace stress, the character of Jesus in us comes out...or not. For the second time in software engineering career, I am a manager. I didn't do so well the first time, several years ago, and my manager removed that part of my job. Many times I have reflected on what happened and asked God to teach me. This is the second time he's asked me to do something a second time, but more on that another day.

God challenged me, first, to be a good worker under for a manager. He did this in my roles as a senior engineer and a church leader. You get along with some; you don't get along with others. Sometimes you get to choose who you report to and then regret it. Other times you don't get to choose who you report to and then find it was a blessing. One thing is true: Under God's superintending hand, each has taught me something God wanted me to hear.

Also, during this period, I found a book, Leading from the Second Chair, that helped to clarify my thinking about what it means to support a leader or manager in both church and non-church settings. In particular, it noted that many of the great characters of the Bible were not leaders, but rather, second-in-commands. Joseph, Daniel, Mordecai, Deborah, Esther, and Nehemiah, for example. Often, they were advisers to people who were not God-fearing, but God put them there anyway.

One incident that I have often reflected upon in the Bible was the life of Joseph:

Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph (Gen. 39:1-2a) 

[Potiphar] burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. (Gen 39:20a)

Joseph didn't have a lot of choices when it came to bosses. After being carried to Egypt by slave traders, he found himself with a pretty good job with Potiphar (Gen. 39). Then things go south and he gets put in prison and he finds himself in a pretty good job working for the prison warden.

But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. (Gen. 39:20b-21)

While he is there, he makes friends with two important members of the household of Pharaoh, the baker and the cupbearer, who were out of favor because of some court scandal. Poisoning was a occupational hazard for the royal family and these two were at the center of the drama.

Joseph becomes friends with them. While his job in the jail under the warden is ok, he wonders if maybe he could transfer to Pharaoh's department or, maybe, get a parson and job recommendation. So he talks with his friends, but one dies and "The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. When two full years had passed..." - (Gen. 40:23-41:1)

Why two years? That question has teased me. Here are my reflections:

1. Those were two years with God's presence. In his time in Potiphar's house and his time in prison, the Bible states clearly that God was with Joseph. God is present in these rough times as slave and prisoner, just as much as He is in the better times. Joseph himself reflected later, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Gen. 50:20) Whatever my role and whoever I report to, God is in the role with me. 
2. Those two years were practice. Joseph started as a bad manager. His father Jacob delegated authority to Joseph, which he handled poorly. He alienated his brothers and offended his mother and father (Gen. 37:10-14). God led him through his own house, Potiphar's house and then the prison before leading him before Pharaoh. He failed at home (brothers), then managed small (Potiphar's house and prison) and then managed big (Pharaoh & Egypt). He failed with his gifts at home (dreams), used his gifts small (cupbearer/baker) and then used them big (Pharaoh & Egypt). My current role is training for who I will be tomorrow, and what God will do tomorrow.
3. Those two years were not about Joseph. They were about God. We groan with the weight of the wait. But it is not about me or you. It is about God. He is always at work. He places us in a wait-and-grow mode while he orchestrates all according to his will and then, when it is safe for us to enter his plan, he green-lights our next step. Maybe it is about your boss, or your company, or you colleagues, or the community, or your industry--not about you at all--and he is placing you in a safe place, knowing he can trust you, while He makes his big move. 

There is an element of patience to all of this: the discipline of prospering-in-place, growing-while-slowing, blooming-where-planted. We can miss the benefits of working under our current manager (no matter who they are) if we are too busy longing for the next. There is a time for change, but is it for the right reason.

“Too many leaders focus all their energy on moving to the next chair as quickly as possible, and they miss the opportunity to develop their gifts in the current chair.” - Mike Bonem, Leading from the Second Chair

So, as a manager for the second time, I appreciate workers who have that patience. One day, they may surpass me. Great. But we can learn together while they are here.

Titus 1:1-3: The Right Action, The Right Time, The Right Reason

This morning, I was reminded of one of my favorite passages from the book of Titus:

So, at the proper time, God our Savior gave this message and told me to announce what he had said. - Titus 1:3 (CEV)

Someone once told me that true maturity is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason. The right action at the wrong time or with the wrong motive is disasterous. Paul appreciates the precision of God's timing, even in his own life. While the other apostles were spending time with Jesus, watching his life and death, Paul was still "advancing in Judaism". But God's plan was not thwarted or diminished: "and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born...and his grace to me was not without effect" (1 Cor. 15:8, 10b).

Waiting for God's timing, and discerning God's timing are among the most difficult jobs in the Christian life. Many times as I have tried to push God's timetable along. Other times I have sat idly by while the amazing movement of God has swept through unnoticed. Jesus' prophecy to his own people chills me: "They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you" (Luke 19:44)

• Is my schedule too busy to be interrupted by God's moving? Do the great things of God get drowned out by the day-to-day? (Luke 14:18-19) When the Spirit moves, be ready to move!
• Are my ears sensitive to the what God is doing? Jesus told his audiences over and over again: "He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt. 11:15) Lord, grant me hearing ears.
• Do frustration and boredom suck away all of my patience? The author of Psalms writes: "do not fret, it leads only to evil." (Psa. 37:8b) Instead, he recommends: "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;" Patience is a form of practiced contentedness. Lord, grant me calm.

Today is a day to practice. God will invade your schedule and present opportunities to join Him in the work he is doing around you. Are you ready to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons?