God's Waiting Room
I'm back there again! I'm hanging out, a bit begrudgingly, again in "God's Waiting Room." Ever been there before? It's the place where answers to prayer seem suspended in the heavenlies. The place where things that I thought would take 10 days are still uncompleted at 10 years. The place where I'm beginning to wonder if hopes I earlier labeled as "God-Given Dreams" are actually more like spiritual fantasies born out of too much late-night pizza.
So what's my mode of operation while shuffling around in God's Waiting Room? I'm taking encouragement from a few biblical saints who spent time there as well. Let me share one with you. Maybe this guy will encourage you like he did me.
Remember the man in John 5 who was waiting for healing at the pool of Bethesda? He had been in "God's Waiting Room" for 38 long years, waiting for the miracle of functioning legs. Now don't let your heart miss this:
- 38 times he tried to get in that pool.
- 38 times he had other people get in front of him.
- 38 times he was waiting...only to be disappointed at the end of the waiting period.
- 38 years is a long, long time.
So what does Jesus do? He looks at the lame man right where he was and says, "RISE...take up your bed and walk." Do you get the profound nature of those words? In other words, "What you are wanting is NOT in the pool. What you are wanting is RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!"
So what's Jesus trying to remind me of today as I impatiently thrash around, wanting an answer to my current prayer concern? Here it is, simple but profound: You can often get what you are looking for RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE...
Jesus has the same message for all of us today that He had for the lame man in John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda: Stop projecting your own self-centered images into your future.
Right where you are...is everything you really are trying to get! So stop impatiently complaining. Instead, internally "pick up your bed...and start walking into your future!"
I'm reminded today of the short verse hidden in Lamentations: "The Lord is GOOD to those who WAIT on Him." But waiting is no fun! It stretches me...reveals parts of my character I'd like to ignore...and forces me to re-define my internal definitions of "happiness" and "success."
"Be not weary in well doing," Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. "You shall REAP in due season if you faint not." In other words, harvest eventually comes if (and only if) you don't give up waiting.
The ultimate outcome may look a little different than you envisioned. But as Corrie Ten Boom, the holocaust survivor, once wisely said: "When Jesus is all you have...Jesus will be all you need."
I'm back there again! I'm hanging out, a bit begrudgingly, again in "God's Waiting Room." Ever been there before? It's the place where answers to prayer seem suspended in the heavenlies. The place where things that I thought would take 10 days are still uncompleted at 10 years. The place where I'm beginning to wonder if hopes I earlier labeled as "God-Given Dreams" are actually more like spiritual fantasies born out of too much late-night pizza.
So what's my mode of operation while shuffling around in God's Waiting Room? I'm taking encouragement from a few biblical saints who spent time there as well. Let me share one with you. Maybe this guy will encourage you like he did me.
Remember the man in John 5 who was waiting for healing at the pool of Bethesda? He had been in "God's Waiting Room" for 38 long years, waiting for the miracle of functioning legs. Now don't let your heart miss this:
- 38 times he tried to get in that pool.
- 38 times he had other people get in front of him.
- 38 times he was waiting...only to be disappointed at the end of the waiting period.
- 38 years is a long, long time.
So what does Jesus do? He looks at the lame man right where he was and says, "RISE...take up your bed and walk." Do you get the profound nature of those words? In other words, "What you are wanting is NOT in the pool. What you are wanting is RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!"
So what's Jesus trying to remind me of today as I impatiently thrash around, wanting an answer to my current prayer concern? Here it is, simple but profound: You can often get what you are looking for RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE...
Jesus has the same message for all of us today that He had for the lame man in John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda: Stop projecting your own self-centered images into your future.
Right where you are...is everything you really are trying to get! So stop impatiently complaining. Instead, internally "pick up your bed...and start walking into your future!"
I'm reminded today of the short verse hidden in Lamentations: "The Lord is GOOD to those who WAIT on Him." But waiting is no fun! It stretches me...reveals parts of my character I'd like to ignore...and forces me to re-define my internal definitions of "happiness" and "success."
"Be not weary in well doing," Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. "You shall REAP in due season if you faint not." In other words, harvest eventually comes if (and only if) you don't give up waiting.
The ultimate outcome may look a little different than you envisioned. But as Corrie Ten Boom, the holocaust survivor, once wisely said: "When Jesus is all you have...Jesus will be all you need."
Related Items
According to surveys done by the Fuller Institute of Church Growth, 70% of pastors have no one they consider to be a close friend and 50% have considered leaving the ministry in the last 3 months. Those are staggering statistics and I suspect that the numbers aren't too different for youth pastors and leaders.
This Youth Leader's Coach, "Coping With Stress and Burnout In Youth Ministry," is probably destined to be one of your favorites. I share candidly with you on stress and burnout. After 35 years in fulltime youth ministry, I've obviously experienced my share of both of these. So I wanted to share with you some of the pragmatic and medical things I have learned through the journey that can help you in these crucial areas.
Most of all, I wanted you to realize that when you feel pretty seriously stressed and even burned out, you are understood and not crazy! It's my honor to send this Youth Leader's Coach your way. Keep it filed somewhere so you can pull it out occasionally. It probably will be worth listening to more than once.
Lovingly Your Sis,
What's a crucible? It's that place where you get crushed and everything inside comes spilling out. It's usually characterized by mounds of pressure, sometimes heat, and a whole lot of adversity. According to Warren Bennis in Geeks and Geezers, "The ability to find meaning and strength during these times of adversity is what distinguishes leaders from non-leaders more than any one single quality."
In these instances, it's as if you are handed a pen and given the opportunity to write the end of the story...your story. Whether the stormy times render you powerless or give you fresh resolve is a matter of choice.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, may my 39 years in ministry help you assign purpose to your pain and not just survive the crucibles, but thrive in them.
Turning wounds into wisdom,
There are a lot of different biblical forms of prayer (i.e. conversational prayer, praying back the Scriptures, personal confession, etc.). Yet, what I'm calling "DANGEROUS PRAYER" is one of the most important but forgotten weapons in our prayer arsenal. James 5:16 tells us, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man does much good." Though most Christians "know" that verse, I often wonder how many truly "believe" it...and if they "believe" it, how much they are truly "practicing" it in their lives. Intuitively we all know prayer can only do "much good" to the extent it is "much practiced." And, our practice will always and forever be a choice we will have to continually choose to make.
We far too often shorten the power of prayer. We think that prayer is something that we can only do when we want something from God or when we’re in a tough or tight situation. The goal for this message is to "up to the bar" in our prayer lives. Journey with me as we look at our most dangerous and faithful weapon.
Experiencing "Soul Pains,"
What habits are you developing when it comes to your relationships? In so many ways, that's really what it boils down to isn't it...relational commitments and habits? That is what it's going to require to take our youth ministries to the next level. And, as odd as it sounds, that is what it's going to require to sustain us through the desert times.
We believe this Alliance topic, "Surviving Desert Times In Youth Ministry," will be timely for so many of us as we franticly rush out of the non-stop action of summer into the feverish pace of fall. If we were honest, some of us would admit to not having stopped long enough to even breathe, let alone have a quiet time. As a result, I believe some of us and our youth pastor friends are heading hard and fast into a "Desert Time" as a result of it. Before we feel deflated, defeated and want to throw in the towel, let's put on the brakes, determine the warning signs and kick Satan in the knees by implementing some preventative measures and developing some new relational commitments and habits.
This Youth Leader’s Coach is a leadership pep talk that I often give to myself. It's this kind of self-talk that has kept me in the game for over four decades. Henry Thoreau said, "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, maybe it is because he marches to the beat of a different drummer." And through the run when challenges came, I learned that no man is ever down for the count…until he quits in his own mind. So, I just get back up and keep drumming!
I hope these simple pragmatics will help you if you ever feel like you're discouraged or want to give up. And don't forget, you can never let God down. Do you know why? Because you were never holding Him up in the first place! If you don't need this encouragement now...you will. So, listen to this Youth Leader's Coach so you are prepared to just KEEP DRUMMING. If you do that my friend, I promise that heaven and I will be clapping for you.
Lovingly,
