 |
I was sitting in Starbucks a couple weeks ago, drinking a cup of hot tea and doing some reading. I am learning the importance of taking care of myself, to ensure that I am emotionally and spiritually well before I pour out my heart into the hearts of others. I certainly do not want to be pouring out an emotionally unhealthy or spiritually infected offering into the body of Christ. So many in ministry have forsaken proper self-care in thought that the Lord would count it as suffering for the Kingdom. I am not sure that the Lord is pleased with failing to properly care for oneself. In fact, I think He is most likely rather offended that we feel we do not need a Sabbath, that we feel we know how to better care for our temples than He does. Jesus said He would give us rest and fullness of life (Matthew 11:28, John 10:10). So if you are running on empty, then you need to stop doing all the running.
This topic of rest is a digression from my story. As I sat in Starbucks, there seemed to be a lot of mothers coming in with their young daughters. The daughters were most likely around four years old, maybe a little older. One particular mother walked into the store and asked her little girl if she wanted the "mocha drink" or if she preferred to drink something else. My initial reaction was to laugh. America runs on Dunkin', but toddlers run on Starbucks. The daughter and mother had a conversation about what beverage the daughter would like to drink. I am sure that her mother was probably going to get her chocolate milk, the "mocha drink" of childhood champions. My comments are not about the woman's parenting, but about how funny it is to hear a four year old ask for her mocha.
And it struck me. I do it all the time. I ask for the Lord to give me things for which I may not be truly prepared. I imagine how God must react when He hears me ask for something that He knows I am not quite ready to encounter. "Stephen, if I gave you that, what would you do with it? Go clean your room, we'll talk about your own house later." I wonder if God looks at us and smiles the way that I did when the girl asked for her mocha. I wonder if he talks to His angels about it. "Hey Michael, isn't Stephen cute? Look how hard he is trying to be all grown up. Man, he is precious." I do not write this to imply that God is looking down at us and mocking our requests or our desires. On the contrary, I believe that the Lord desires to grant us the desires of our hearts. Yet, there is some element of truth to the idea that children are constantly trying to advance more quickly than they ought. There is also an element of truth to the statement that emotionally, spiritually, financially, physically, etc., we do the same things in our adult lives.
The Lord tells us to present our requests to Him with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). When we do this, we must recall that there is a proper season for everything under the sun. There are times to laugh and mourn, times to tear and times to mend, a time to speak and a time to be silent, and so on (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). God has these seasons in our lives mapped out by His glorious plan and His infinite wisdom. There is a time for the desires of your heart to translate into reality and there are times for God to build the character worthy of that reality.
There is a time to drink chocolate milk and a time to drink mocha. True story.
Could be more true (or is it "truer"? I never know...). Last night was a battle of God trying hard to help avoiding a big disappointment and I stubbornly insisting on having it my way.
ReplyDeleteWhatever it was the outcome God was preventing me from, after fighting it for hours I finally convinced myself it was probably important that I would not do it and just let it go.
Not easy, but I have to believe it was for the best.