Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Yes. Please....loiter.

Until this very moment, I had not realized how much standing around God has asked His people to do. I would imagine He does it for a couple of reasons. One, because when we run around like chickens with our heads cut off, we tend to be more in His way than of any use to Him. Two, because then He gets to show off. When we are just standing there and something incredibly cool happens, there can be no doubt what so ever that it was He that pulled off the victory.

Before we came down here, I was pretty much consumed with doubt (surprise, surprise). We were stepping out into the unknown, letting go of all 'the security' of our North American life. So, when we asked God for confirmation (again) He reminded us of a passage that Randy had spoken about.


2 Chronicles 20:13-17 says (mostly), "Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD. And [Jahaziel] said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle
is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.”"

Now, admittedly, we had no Ammonites or Moabites or inhabitants of Mount Seir breathing down our necks, but we did have finances, lack of 'education', emotional baggage and the fact that we didn't even have a place to live, skittering around on the fringes of the little kingdom we had built for ourselves. Scary, scary monsters. And all God had to say was, 'stand still'. So, we stood. And He did His thing. And then we drove, through the mountains (which is another blog entirely) and we arrived and we have settled.


Okay, so, you think that would be enough to make us realize that He has everything under control. Nope, not at all. The inhabitants of Mount Seir returned. "You are running out of money. You have not earned a doctorate in anything since you've been here. You are beginning to look really lazy. You are not speaking fluent Portuguese. This whole thing is a scam and you are not going to make it until 2012. Get BUSY." So, we listened to the Ammonites and we ran around looking at houses, applying for jobs and just generally being stressed out and miserable. The Moabites had made their move and we were panicking. Guess what, we didn't buy a house and none of our job applications were accepted. Are you shocked? Well, we were. "We are very busy being busy here, God. Aren't you going to help us out?" I think He probably laughed. And then, He put a scripture on Koos' heart.


1 Samuel 12:14-18 says, "If you fear the LORD and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God—good! But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers. “Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes! Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call upon the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king.” Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel."


Okay, so we didn't ask for a king, and so far, (thank you God) He hasn't sent any thunder or rain to remind us how ridiculous we are (unless you count the storms inside of us He allowed to build up as we were frantically running about). We had however, asked for security and safety the way we see it. A good solid job for when the cash runs out, some benefits, a dental plan, a lovely little bungalow to return to from Brazil. Oops. We are now clearly aware that that is not how this whole thing is going to be shaking out. Our plans are definitely not His plans.

So, we are going to stand still. Even to the last three cents. It is quite difficult to stand still and let's face it, we here in North America particularly stink at it. Standing still is not part of our natural giftedness. We are gifted in many things, but standing still is NOT one of them. We have devised many, many weapons and kung fu moves of our own to deal with all those 'ites'. And not many of them involve just loitering around waiting for God to 'deal'. You get my point, right?

Well God gets that too, so I pointed out to Him that if I didn't have an alternative, I might just start running around again. And seeing that He understands my spastic tendencies, He said, "Alright then, if you are unable to completely stand still, I will allow you to DANCE!" "To DANCE, God?" "To DANCE."

Well now, this should be interesting....

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