In the Meantime

A large part of what I do is not on Sunday, but during the week.  On Sunday I know what to do, whether I hit a homerun or strike out, I know what I am suppose to do.  It is the Monday through Saturday things that are not as easy to decipher.  Those are the days I walk in the valley with folks.  Just this week, I buried a dear saint of the Lord, am trying to minister to another family with a dying loved one, and another with a child with severe injuries in an accident, and another who lost a pregnancy and continues to struggle with symptoms that caused it, and another who got over one health ailment to now find herself in another.  Closer to home, my mother-in-law has a biopsy today, my father-in-law is about to enter a nursing home, and my wife has went to care for them, not feeling good herself.  I sometimes feel handcuffed in each situation.  They are all hanging in the balance.  Some already miss their loved one, others are waiting for healing, others are waiting for the seeming inevitable, while others are waiting for the Great Day.  All are 'in the meantime.' 

That is where we live our lives.  The power and opportunity of faith in God is that He walks with us 'in the meantime.'  He tells us to not be discouraged.  He said it through Isaiah to me today. 
Isaiah 40.28-31  -Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (www.lifejournal.cc)
I feel handcuffed because I do not wait to sound like a preacher.  You know what I mean..."well, you know, it is the Lord's Will."  I don't like preacher jargon.  I try not to use it.  Some things in life stink and I don't understand it.  There is no need to hide it.  I feel handcuffed because there is not much I can do, not much I can say, and I cannot give all the answers. 

However, the reality is, this feeling of handcuffed is good.   All I feel that I can do is point them to the Lord, in the midst of their valleys.   And that is when I do my best. 

I had not been on the new church field long when a long time sufferer died.  I did not know her.  I had met her in the hospital a few times, but really did not know her.   When she passed, I went to sit with her children and discuss what I could do to help them.   In talking about the funeral, I said, " I did not know your mother very well...".  In the midst of my sentence, a bitter family member broke in on my words and said, "That's right, you didn't know her, so what are you going to say?" I looked her in the eye and said, "I am going to do the same thing at your mother's funeral that I do at all funerals- I am going to point folks to the Lord.   She has lived her life and the people at that funeral know her better than me.   There is no reason for me to act as if they do not.  I am going to point them to comfort, guidance, and salvation- all found in the Lord."  Nothing else was said.   Isaiah reminds me this morning that I am going to do the same in the 'meantimes' of people's lives.  May God bless my- no, 'our'- efforts as we do...in the meantime.