Time-Out

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Margaret

Watching sports on TV has never been an interest of mine, probably because I didn’t take time to learn the rules. I do remember watching the Chicago Blackhawks play hockey and won’t soon forget the fight I saw between two players. A referee quickly intervened, and the result was an official time-out for one of the players. I suppose that’s the NHL’s version of counting to 10, but no one wants to be forced to sit quietly while everyone else is still in the game.

Little children can relate. When mommy says, “Stop that behavior or you’ll have to have a time-out,” a two year old knows she means business. If he continues to disobey, he ends up in the time-out chair. During this confinement, toddlers and hockey players agree: two minutes is an eternity!

Little Jaxon, grandson of my friend Lois, recently found himself in a time-out. Although he cooperated with his sentence, a photo record (taken via Skype) depicts his struggle to wait out the two minutes.

Hockey players, children, and all of us share the frustration of forced time-outs, but believe it or not, God makes good use of them. He doesn’t always use them as discipline (toddler-style) or punishment (hockey-style) but often makes us sit still so he can work at setting up good plans for us. Unfortunately, none of his time-outs fit into two minutes. They’ve been known to last for weeks, months, or even years.

When that happens, it helps if we try to see things from God’s perspective. A seemingly interminable time-out is but a nano-second to him. He works long-range, is a God for the long-haul, and concerns himself with both the long-and-short of our lives.

When we find ourselves in time-out, we can be content if we’ll recognize that leaving too soon means stepping out from under God’s protective guidance about whatever it is we “just can’t wait” for.

We can prematurely terminate our time-out for something as trivial as an impulsive purchase or as serious as choosing the wrong marriage partner. Though staying in the wait-zone longer than two minutes is distasteful, moving forward when all indications are to “stay put” is like eating a beautiful steak before it’s been cooked.

But that’s not all.

When little Jaxon had completed his two minutes, he was given the pleasure of his mommy’s long-awaited time-in, accompanied by a hug and kiss of approval and love. If we bolt out ahead of God, we not only miss out on his plans, we lose the feel-good approval that comes when we hear, “Now is the time.”

When we let him decide our wait is over, all sorts of lovely surprises happen. That’s because while we were sitting in time-out, he was busy setting up the invisible specifics. And when he says, “Time-in!” we can be sure that whatever follows next will be worth the wait.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8-9)

Be prepared.

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Margaret

Sleep was hard to come by last night. The forest crickets outside seemed extra loud, and the wall clock was doing a click-click instead of a tick-tick. I tried not to keep checking the glowing-green digital hours as they passed, but if the mind can’t be quieted, the body won’t rest.

When I asked myself, “What are you worried about?” my brain flooded with answers. Of greatest concern was an upcoming trip. Running through a mental check list in the dark, I couldn’t remember if I had or hadn’t tended to certain duties. Had I even written them down? And if so, where were they? Maybe on misplaced Post-it notes?

No one can sleep with a pounding heart, so the only thing to do was get up and make the list. Surely I’d drift off quickly after that, once everything was out of my head and inked on a hard copy.

Traveling produces anxiety for two reasons: (1) worry about forgetting something important (like my passport… again); (2) not having a travel companion to share preparations and second-guess me (formerly Nate).

Some people refuse to go anywhere because of this kind of pre-travel stress. I totally get that. But whether we like to travel or not, there’s one trip all of us will be required to make eventually, the one from this world to the next. When I think of the extensive planning for a journey from one earthly place to another (including mind-wrestling the details during the night), I wonder if I’ve taken the same care with my off-the-earth trip.

Maybe because that seems distant with ample time to prep, I’m not stressed right now. I’ve never lost a night’s sleep worrying about it. But really, why haven’t I?

Christ Jesus will be waiting for me at the other end of that supernatural travel day, so being ready is critical. Scripture says he’ll welcome me with open arms, but it also says he’ll have a few questions for me on topics like idle words, insincere motives, hidden sins. Will I have prepared well enough for all that?

The answer is yes.

The only preparation needed will have been my alignment with Jesus before I stand in front of him, followed by having kept short accounts concerning my sins and faults. Once forgiven, always forgiven, and that’s his rule, not mine.

It’s possible I might lose some more sleep over my upcoming trip, but because I believe the words of the Bible, I know I won’t lose one wink of it wondering if I’ve made adequate preparations for my journey to Jesus.

Jesus… “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” (Jude 1:24)

Cyber-words

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Margaret

A few years ago, if you’d have asked me what cyber-friendship was, I couldn’t have answered. Now I not only have an answer, I have lots of cyber-friends. All kinds of readers from every corner of the globe have allowed me to become electronically acquainted with them, and I’ve kept a cyber-file of their stories.

Since my book was published [Hope for an Aching Heart, at left], many people have detailed specific help they’ve received from its pages, and the email quoted below is an example that was deeply moving to me.

Bev writes:

I purchased your book from DHP [Discovery House Publishers] recently, in hopes that it would help me get through the crisis I am experiencing in my life right now.

My husband of 37 years left me without warning, to be with another woman. To say I was devastated would be putting it mildly. I thought my life was over. I thought we would spend the rest of our lives together, but it was not to be. I am having an extremely hard time dealing with this. I saw your book in a leaflet from RBC. Knowing that I am going through most of the same feelings, emotions and challenges that a widow would, I thought maybe this book could be of some help. It’s been amazing!

Ninety-five percent of the book pertains to what I am going through. I just substitute ‘single woman’ for ‘widow’ and ‘marriage breakdown’ for ‘husband’s death.’ I am finding great comfort and help from this book. The prayers at the end of each chapter are wonderful and very pertinent.

Perhaps you could mention it in a blog or elsewhere on your site, that it might be a helpful book also for women who are going through a marriage breakdown and divorce, especially if it’s been a sudden event for them.

God bless you!

Sincerely,
Bev

I’m thankful for Bev’s openness and her willingness to share her heartbreaking story (used with her permission), and I want to encourage anyone enduring marriage struggles to take her advice. The reason she’s found hope is that my book is laced with pieces of God’s book, life-changing truth that can supernaturally jump off the page and into our lives, no matter what the situation. His book is “living and powerful.”

What does that mean?

Hebrews 4 tells us the words of Scripture “discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That isn’t just so it can judge us. It’s also for the purpose of determining what our hearts need so it can help us. Bev found that even though the book was aimed at widows, God met her in her non-widow circumstance because his Word actively discerned her need and then blanketed it with encouragement and love.