Waiting...

Today I was blessed to spend some time with my sister attending a women's conference at Crosspoint Community Church. The guest speaker was one of my favorite authors, Kelly Minter. It was just one of the those days where I knew that I was in the right place at the right time to hear a specific Word from the Lord. The messages God spoke through her breathed such Life into me that I had to share them. I pray that they may give you hope if you're reading this the same way they have me.

We began reading from John 11: 1-6 where we find these words:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped His feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord the one you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Maybe you already know this, but one of the things Kelly pointed out that helped me to gain perspective on this story was to realize that the Mary of "Mary and Martha", the Mary of Bethany, and Mary, Lazarus' sister is all the same person. Taking this into account, we looked back at Luke 10: 38-42 where Mary first met Jesus at the home of her sister, Martha. While Martha was busy with all the preparations that had to be made while having a guest in her home, Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened to him. Two truths that we learned about that really resonated with me in this story were:

1. Martha gets a hard time for being "busy" while having a guest in her home, and not just any guest but Christ himself. However, it was through Martha's willingness to open her home to a guest that her sister Mary had the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus and get to know him. Also, she was doing "necessary" things. She was being hospitable. When she asked Jesus if he cared that her sister had left her to do all the work, Jesus told her only one thing was needed and Mary had chosen what was better. Kelly Minter reminded us that the good is sometimes the enemy of the best. While the things that kept Martha busy were good, spending time with Jesus was best. Oh, what a challenge for me to lay aside the "necessary" things everyday to spend time doing what is best: sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to his direction!

2. This was a calm time for Mary and Martha. There is no major crises going on that we are told about. During this "quiet" day, Mary took the time to sit at the Savior's feet and get to know him.

The reason this second truth spoke to me so much was because right now I am going through some relatively quiet days. I am experiencing a time of peace after 2 1/2 years of a very busy work/school schedule. While for me it is hard going from doing something all the time to having so much more free time, I have felt the last week or so that I am to spend this time sinking my roots down deep into Jesus by spending time with him. Then, when a new job and new opportunities come, I will have deep roots in him to draw from to deal with the challenges they will bring. Learning that this is what Mary did was confirmation to me that God is in fact telling me to use my quiet days wisely and spend them sitting at his feet.

The second encounter Mary had with Jesus that we studied was the one where we started, in John 11. It tells that when Jesus got word that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. The text says that he loves Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and yet he stays. It seems like such a foundational truth but it is one I can never hear enough. Right now in my life, I am in a time of waiting on the Lord. Perhaps you are too. May we cling to the truth that sometimes the Lord's love means that he tarries.

Later on in the Scripture when Jesus does arrive to the place where Lazarus is, he meets Martha first. Then he asks for Mary. I like what Kelly pointed out at this point in the text because it felt so personal to me today. The people told Mary that the Teacher was there and he was looking for her. Today, the Teacher was at Crosspoint and he was looking for me. I can only hope that my response would always be the same as Mary's: she runs to him and falls at his feet. We learned that in her quiet day, Mary sat at the Lord's feet. Then, in her time of crisis, she fell at his feet demonstrating and deepening her trust in him.

Finally in John 12, after Jesus had raised Lazarus, Mary anointed Jesus' feet with perfume. While there is so much depth in this moment in Scripture, I think Minter summed everything up best by saying that Mary gave everything to Jesus at this time. Here she is again at the feet of Jesus, and she gave him her total devotion, all of her worship.

The central objective of the message today was about how to identify our false gods and eliminate them from our lives. We were taught that to get rid of our idols, we have to pour into our relationship with Jesus, identify our trust issues with him, and ask ourselves what we are missing about the Savior that makes our idols seem so powerful.

As I mentioned before, I am in a time of waiting. I am waiting to take a board exam, waiting to see which direction my career will take, waiting to see what the future has in store. It is a constant struggle for me to give up control and know that God has my best interest at heart. As Kelly Minter said, sometimes it's not worrying that God is going to provide what's best for us, it's worrying how painful the best is going to be that scares us. 

This week in a moment of doubt and struggle I asked my husband, Brad, if he had any words of wisdom for me while I wait. He quoted the verse, "Be still and know that I am God." Today when I won a door prize that was a painted board from the Spotted Zebra in Trussville, I almost burst into tears as it was handed to me. I looked down at the board which had the outline of a dove painted on it and said, "Be still and know that I am God." Oh, how he loves us! If you are reading this, I just wanted you to be reminded how personal our God is and how much he cares for you. Perhaps through these words you have found that the Teacher is here and he is looking for you. I don't know what his personal message to you is, but I know He is faithful and true. He is with you and for you and will never let you go.