I'm Having Isaacs

One of the hardest things I have to do is not push so hard that I end up messing things up. When I want something to happen I want it to be done as quickly as possible and in the most excellent way possible. When I know something should happen, I see no point in waiting. Anybody else?

Well the hard part is this: it seems that some things take time. And I hate that. I see all this time transpire between a dream and reality, between a desire and fulfillment, between a promise and the manifestation of the promise…and I can’t help but to think that a lot of that time is wasted. All of that time sitting around and waiting could be used to pursue other dreams if the initial one would hurry up and happen. If you know me at all, you know I hate wasting time.

One thing I can’t push though is God’s timing. I don’t understand why I feel urgency with a promise He has given me and it seems as though that urgency isn’t shared by Him. I have no clue why sometimes a promise will come in an instant and sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize. The very fact that I don’t understand it makes it all the more frustrating!

There’s a million different ways to possibly explain why things take a long time…maybe God is waiting on me to do ‘x’, or maybe my character can’t handle this yet, or maybe He wants to see if I believe Him, etc, etc, etc. Whatever the reason may be, the bottom line is this: the thing I am hoping for is not happening yet.

So I’m left waiting and hoping and trusting and believing in God’s promise…which I’m SO ready to watch happen, but for some reason it is taking longer than I think it should. It is in these times where I try to remind myself not to push so hard. I can’t make the promise of God happen in my life. I can, however, make imposters of that promise if I’m not careful. Let me explain using Abram from the Bible.

Abram had a promise from God that he would be made “into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2), that he would have offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5), and that the promise would come to fulfillment through his own son (Genesis 15:4). Abram tried to have children with his wife, Sarai, but was having no success. Sarai comes to the conclusion that the Lord is keeping her from having children, and suggests that Abram sleep with her maidservant, Hagar, so that they could build the family through her. So Abram married Hagar as well, and she became pregnant.

This is where they messed up. God had already ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:19-24). In their efforts to find a way to make the word of God come to pass, they violated the marriage covenant. They reasoned that the word of God was true, but since it was taking too long to happen then they should try something else.

The error here is not in trying. Partnering with God in seeing His word culminate is usually a good thing. A large amount of the time, God’s promise coming to pass in your life will require effort and movement on your end. And if something isn’t working after a while, then it only makes sense to seek out other possible ways of going about things. However, the error happens when our reasoning trumps the word of God. “How did their reasoning trump God’s word?” you ask. This is how: they overstepped a boundary previously established in attempting to make the word happen. They let their own ideas supersede their faith in seeing the word come to pass. They regressed into only seeing the word come to pass in ways they could understand. When getting pregnant didn’t work for them within the confines of what God had laid out, they decided that they could conceive via another woman. Their faith only went as far as their understanding and reasoning could take them.

To make a long story short, Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, gave birth to Ishmael. After Ishmael was a teenager, God again told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4), and this time the Lord specifically indicated that his wife, Sarah, would conceive even though she was very old and beyond the age of child bearing (Genesis 17:15-16). Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Isaac. When Isaac was still very young, Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Abraham obliged after the Lord assured Abraham that it was through Isaac that his “offspring will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:12). Thus, the Lord honored his word and opened the barren womb of Sarah in her old age…blowing the minds and the reasoning of everyone.

If we aren’t careful, we can push past God’s timing. Though we may make something happen it may turn out to be a copy of the promise, not the real thing. We can definitely try different things in partnering with God to see His promise come to pass, but let us be very mindful to stay within the confines of what He has laid out. Also, may we all (especially me) embrace the fact that we don’t understand everything about how God’s promise plays out…that our reasoning is not big enough to grasp the ways of our Creator. As much as I hate waiting, I much rather wait on God’s timing than end up with duplicates. I’m having Isaacs.

11:50pm

One of my goals for 2011 is to write more music—worship music, music for my band, music for me. As far as worship music goes, I put a very specific measurement on myself to make sure that I keep on top of things: I must write and have ready to present to our worship team at least 1 song per month.

January was pretty easy. I wrote “Who We Are” (which I will post on here once we get a good recording) in basically 2 or 3 days. It was one of those songs that just came quickly and wouldn’t leave my head until it was completed. Gotta love those kind :) And it seemed like February was gonna be easy, too, because I had already gotten a good start on a song that had lots of potential. In fact, I had started working on this song before composing “Who We Are”. But as the month wore on, no real progress was made on it. Every time I sat down to write, I would just replay what I already had done…then just sit there, stuck. Even when I sat down very deliberately a week ago to hammer something out (which is what this post was about), nothing substantial ever came.

So February 28^th rolls around and the song still isn’t done. I’m still lacking an entire bridge, and at least half of the 2^nd verse. Plus, I still haven’t determined the exact structure of the song…. Does it need a bridge? If so, should there be the 3^rd verse? Where should the buildups be? 8 or 16 measures for the guitar solo? Should there even be a guitar solo? Ha. You music people know what I’m talking about.

Anyways, since I’m determined to meet my goal of finishing one song per month, I made sure to schedule lots of time on the 28^th dedicated to completing “Your Name is Love”. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t get started until around 5 in the evening...not good. Then when I finally do get started, it’s not exactly with a bang; just more of the same—replaying things I had already done, and not coming up with anything I want to keep. But then I start to get pieces here and there that I begin to weave together: the chord structure for the bridge (and a melody to go with it!), the topic of the material that will become the 2^nd verse, and snippets of the lyrics for the bridge and 2^nd verse. Looks like it just might happen!

…11pm, and I’m still not done. I’ve stopped to eat, and just take a break. I’m hoping that clearing my mind for a little while will help me when I attack it again. But when I sit back down nothing new comes immediately. I consider calling it a night because I had truthfully made some real progress—2 or 3 lyrical ideas that I was pretty sure could become half of the 2^nd verse, and I had definitely finished the first half of the bridge lyrics. Plus, I didn’t want to “force” myself to write something if it just wasn’t right, ya know?

But instead of giving into the urge to do the easy thing and quit for the night, I told myself at the very least I would sit there until midnight and see if anything would come. I prayed for more words to come. And they did. Out of the muck in my mind, actual phrases that I could use in the song started to form and piece together. The first half of the 2^nd verse rolled out and fit together with another lyrical idea I had written out earlier. Then, it hit me to let the 2^nd half of the bridge wrap back around to lyrics from the 1^st verse. Far beyond just “filling the gap” in the song, wrapping it back to those specific words was a perfect fit and made for a great transition to then go straight back into the chorus; thus, solving the structural question as well. BAM! Song complete!

All of this got done around 11:50pm. So I did, indeed, get my song done by my self-imposed deadline.

* * * * *

I believe the Lord helped me honor my commitment to Him and myself because I chose to stick it out. I really do think that since I consciously chose to at least put forth the effort in trying to meet the demands I put on myself (which, in fact, were designed to make sure I was nourishing that aspect of my life, gifting, and calling), God came in at the last second and helped me make it to the finish line.

Making promises to God, yourself, and others is a big deal. Following through with your commitment is a big deal. I want you to know that God does care about what you care about—after all, He put a lot of those things in you. I also want you to know that you’ve got to make a decision to go after what you care about; it won’t always fall into your lap without any effort. But I have first-hand experience that says when you make a choice to push through the hard stuff and ask God to help you with what you’ve made a commitment to (when what you’re doing is inside of His will, of course), He is faithful to show up and help you out.

He will do the same thing for you that He’s done for me. God is no respecter of persons, and He loves us all. Go do YOUR thing. In Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen.

Taking God at His word

Two things I’ve been doing lately that have ratcheted up my faith level and simultaneously quieted worries: 1. taking God at His word; 2. embracing mystery. I kind of hit on #1 in my previous blog, but I wanted to flesh that out a little more (I’ll talk more about #2 in my next blog).

Taking God at His word means that you believe Him when He speaks to you. And then, you don’t stop believing it. You walk it out. What I used as an example in my last blog was the promise of provision. Since God tells you in the Bible that He will provide for you, you can be assured that He will, indeed, provide for you. It’s that simple. Though things might seem to be bad, or it may appear that your world is crumbling around you, God is in control and will make sure you will be ok if you claim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

This premise applies to everything you read in the Bible, not just verses about provision. Among the numerous things God promises believers in His Word, this is just a short list: that you are redeemed by the blood of Jesus (1st Peter 1:18-19); that you can do all things through Christ (Phillipians 4:13); that sin has no power over you (Romans 6:14); that you will bear children (Psalm 128:3-4); that the devil will flee from you (James 4:7); that you should be in good health and prosper (3rd John 2); that you have peace (Phillipians 4:6-7); that you have a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline (2nd Timothy 1:7); that all things work together for your good (Romans 8:28). You can find Scriptures that address nearly anything you can think of…go look it up, and start believing it as the promise it is.

Also, while reading the Bible is probably the most frequent way God speaks to us, He uses all sorts of other avenues as well—most common in my life are dreams, prophetic words, and God speaking through other people. When God speaks to you this way, believe it! The Lord is not restricted to only talking to you through the Bible! However, DO USE CAUTION when choosing who you let speak into your life, and who you trust to guide you in these more mysterious waters. Be sure your mentors and teachers are solid and have a Biblical basis for their lives and teaching.

Just taking God at His word has made a huge difference in the way I look at, and think about things. When I make the choice to believe Him, then I don’t have to worry anymore; I know it’s going to happen. When I choose to have faith that what He has told me is true, doubt starts to fade. In a nutshell, faith increases and worry decreases. I end up being happier, more carefree, and even more driven to live out what the Lord has for me.

When God speaks, just listen and believe. It’s that simple.