I, even I, am
the Lord, and
apart from Me there is no saviour.
I have revealed
and saved and proclaimed –
I, and not some
foreign god among you.
You are my
witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
Isa 43:11-12
‘Are we there
yet? Are we there yet?’
If you’re a
parent, you’ll have heard this question just a few times. As a
toddler, Miss Abi, who is now 6, would utter these words within the first half
hour of an all-day journey. It makes
you cringe, because you know you won’t hear it just once during that long
journey.
From a toddler’s
point of view, it’s a valid question.
They have no control over the journey, the destination, the time taken
or even their own comforts. That’s all
down to you, and it’s hard to wait and trust and believe that the parent has it
covered, especially if you are, by nature, a leader, and not a follower.
Are you on a
journey that you can’t control? Do you
find yourself asking ‘When, God, when?’, ‘How, God, how?’, ‘Why, God, why?’,
and ‘Are we there yet?’. Do you find
yourself wanting to get out of the vehicle or at least be the driver? Like
toddlers, we can be pretty impatient and unbelieving when we can’t see or
control the destination, the time frame, how or when we travel, or even how
comfortable we are on the journey.
And when find
ourselves on a long, tedious journey full of unknowns and many causes for
discomfort, how do we keep moving forward, how do we rest in our seats?
When I look
forward at this new year, with its new numbers and possibilities, there are so
many unknowns. We head into this new year tired in many ways
from last year’s struggle. I can so
relate to the Israelites in the desert, surviving on manna, walking miles each
day, wondering, complaining, questioning.
What were they looking forward
to, or were they even looking forward?
Are we looking
forward, or just trying to survive, just putting one foot in front of the
other? To look forward and not cringe when
I hear my own ‘Are we there yet?’ questions screaming at me, I need to look
back.
I need to look
back at the year that was, and remember the God who spoke those thoughts at the
top of this page. We have indeed been witnesses to Him revealing
and saving and proclaiming and just being God in our turmoil.
This last
difficult, tedious, long year has been full of God’s grace – His faithfulness, His
goodness, His mercy, His attention to detail, His encouragement, His promises
and His lessons.
God sent the
Israelites on a journey to a place He had prepared for them, a purpose He had
designed for them, with promises in hand, and power to fulfil them. It wasn’t a quick or an easy journey, made
even more difficult by their lack of knowledge of Him or trust in Him. But He showed them.
He showed them Who He was and what He could
do. He showed them even before they left
Egypt that He was God above all gods and He called them into a growing relationship
with Him. He
continued to show Himself to them, even in ways they did not appreciate.
So how are we going
on our journey? Are we pretty
comfortable because everything is cruisy at the moment? Or are we still in the midst of a problem we
can’t fix and constantly fighting with frustration at our lack of control, fighting
doubts about God’s control and compassion, and enduring pain from the struggle?
And what destination
are we aiming for? Is what we’re aiming
for the same as what God wants for us?
Sometimes, we can
be on a journey to our preferred destination, but we find out that our journey
is interrupted, that our destination, the place we are aiming for, is not
necessarily what God wants, that there’s more, a higher calling, a better place,
and a much more roundabout way of getting there. Darn!
This was not the plan.
Then, we discover
that it’s not about the destination but about the journey itself. It’s about learning Who He is for us on the
journey. And it’s in the difficult journeys that
we do indeed discover Him.
This year, we’ve
learnt some lessons in what God’s blessing looks like, and we’re learning that
God is sovereign, much like the parent who gets to decide where, when and how
the journey goes. Submitting to that sovereignty, however, is a
whole other matter, and one we wrestle with again and again.
Are we there
yet? Apparently not, but we’ve covered
a lot of ground. And when we can’t see
the way forward, when we can only see the trips and tumbles and pain from the journey
so far, we need to hang onto the promises below.
As we step into
the new year, we need to remind ourselves that the same God who brought the ark
to rest on a mountain, who split the Red Sea, who pulled down the impenetrable
walls of Jericho and who ripped the temple curtain in two, that very same God has
got this and is on our journey.
‘This is what the Lord says— He who made a way
through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do
you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the
wasteland.’ Isa 43:16-19
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