I am constantly amazed at how a change in perspective can teach you a lesson.
Today, as I was working on my Malachi study, but the fabulously
hilarious Lisa Harper, I was given this fresh outlook on why God makes
us wait for things. Things that take a long time to be created and even
in the end of the wait, don't come out looking like what we'd hoped for
or expected.
The activity was to write Romans 5:1-5 out on note cards. Eh, that's easy enough.
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Except you have to write it out with your non-dominant hand. So for
me, left. (I now have the mark of the lefty for the rest of the
day-pen smudge on my pinky) Huh, well isn't this going to be
interesting. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't expect it to be
so time consuming, and even more surprising, painful.
Writing 5 Bible verses with my left hand was legitimately painful.
My neck was cramped from the tension of forced concentration (right hand
writing is natural, left is forced), I was flushed in the chest (common symptom of mine that relates to stress, frustration, or anger), my hand
was sweating and beginning to ache, my lower body started to feel funny
as I realized my posture was completely out of whack because I didn't
know how to hold my body, let alone my hand. Then my feet started
tingling! Don't ask me how my feet relate to my left hand, but somehow
they did. Or maybe God just wanted to throw in the extra tingle for
dramatic punch. (He's good like that) When I finished, I looked up at
the clock and it had taken me 16 minutes to complete! Woah!
As I was writing I kept thinking, I wonder how long it will take me to write it out with my right hand?
So after a bathroom break (hey, Baby Hall is the boss) I returned to try it again with what is comfortable for me.
5. FIVE. Did you hear me?! FIVE minutes later I was finished! My
hand didn't ache, my chest wasn't flushed, my feet weren't tingling, but
I was finished. Why on Earth would a righty ever attempt to write
something with their left hand? The truth is, they wouldn't. I wouldn't.
You wouldn't. Why? Because it's too time consuming. It takes extra
effort. Concentration. Posture change.
Ah hah.
It was so clear to me (unlike the letters on my left handed verse)
that God intentionally takes us out of our comfort zone so that we can
learn something about ourselves, about Him. He knows we need a slow
down. Something that allows us to take the attention off the prize of
perfection and realize that it doesn't always have to be pretty, or
perfect, or legible. It just has to be real. My normal handwriting or my
lefty handwriting neither one change the words of the verse. They have
no effect on God's words. Just like the wait doesn't change the fact
that God loves us and that His best intentions are for us. It just means
that sometimes, we need to slow down to appreciate the process and know
that when the ending isn't our idea of perfection, that God's Word and
his word are still true for us.
Sometimes God makes us sweat. Makes us tingle. Cramps our
lifestyles and changes our focus. His intentions are never to hurt us,
but to strengthen us.
Romans 5: 1-5
Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by
faith, we ahve peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has
done for us. Because of our faith Christ has brought us into this place
of undeserved priviledge where we now stand, and we confidently and
joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. We can rejoice, too, when
we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop
endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character
strengthen our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead
to disapointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has
given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.
