living holy week all year.

Well, after a bit of hiatus, I'm back to waiting.
I've found myself sitting at a coffee shop in KC after being dropped off by one ride and waiting for another to take me back to Minnesota.  My ride here had to go to work.  My ride from here wasn't planning to meet me for awhile, so here I am.  Waiting.

I don't mind it.  I smile...it brings me back to what God is teaching me.  Besides, it's kind of nice having blocked out time for solitude.  I also enjoyed some down time at the same cafe on the way here for before Easter.  And as I think about it, I can't help but think how appropriate it is.

It doesn't really get much air time in Scripture, but waiting was a big part of the Passion and Easter story.  From Good Friday to Easter Sunday, Jesus' friends were waiting.  Check it out.

Luke says: 
It was Preparation Day. The Sabbath was about to begin.  The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph. They saw the tomb and how Jesus' body was placed in it.  Then they went home. There they prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath day in order to obey the Law. (Luke 23:54-56)


I don't really think they really got the fact that they were waiting for the resurrection.  Jesus tried to explain it, but still, here we find the disciples hiding in fear for three days.  The disciples were hiding, waiting for resolution.  The women were waiting for Sabbath/Passover to end so they could go anoint Jesus' Body.  Now that their Messiah was dead and the hope that they were looking for died, they were waiting for what would happen next.  Regardless of what they would've liked to do, it was the Sabbath.  They had to be still and wait in accordance with the Jewish law.  The women were eager to go to Jesus' body.  So eager that they prepared everything before the Sabbath, so they could leave right away when it broke.  Until then, though, they could do nothing.  No funeral ceremonies or preparations.  No making casseroles for the bereaved family or picking hymns.  No ordering flowers.  They had to wait.  Waiting was and is difficult.

The three days.  It's the down time between death and new life.  It's often where we live now--experiencing the effects of brokenness and not yet in the full resurrection that is coming.  Jesus saying to us: "Wait.  There's nothing you can do.  Let me make all things new.  Let me show my glory."  Boy, did he.  In a way those women could've never imagined (see stones will roll for more on that story).

And as I sit here waiting, I wonder if it could be beneficial to us to live life in a Holy Week cycle. 

Without being a Debbie downer, I'll be honest.  In my world (and if you're honest, in your world), Good Friday looms all year round.  Every time I get dropped off by someone I love, it's a little Good Friday.  It hurts.  Friends experience difficult times.  Death happens.  Great experiences come to an end.  Good Friday keeps popping up.

But Good Friday always gives way to a victorious Sunday.  Jesus comes and does make all things new.

My days, weeks, months, and years are filled with glimpses of Easter.  Creation is so excited with new life that it can't be contained!  Take a new day, for example.  It's a new chance for life.  A new shot at living life to the full and bringing life to others.  Every time I get picked up by someone I love, it's a little Easter.  New life is breathed into me.  New opportunity.  New fun and stories.  A new journey.

From something dead comes life.  That's Easter, people.  It's all around us.  I  pray that God would give us eyes that eagerly look for Easter when hints of Good Friday loom.  That we would have hearts that can't help but wait to see Christ glorified in darkness.  In times of death and brokenness, we would see it as another opportunity for Christ to bring His resurrection to life in our lives.  God help us to trust the end of the story.  Give us lives of hope--hope knowing that death couldn't hold You.  Hope that promises in all things You're working for Your glory and our good.  Help us not to be stuck on Good Friday, but excited for Sunday.  You're good, Lord.  Thanks for Sunday.  Thank you that we have something sure that we're waiting for--that we can live in Your Holy Week.

keep moving.

Throughout the process of "In the Meantime," I've observed how much people despise waiting.  Everything about our culture screams instant gratification.  We are a people who want and want now.  I see this and know it's true, but in the past week, God has shown me how willing and even insistent we are to wait for things when we are uncertain of their outcome.  Track with me...

Right now on campus, we're in a Lenten series that is taking us on a journey to the cross via the story of Israel journeying to the Promised Land.  Last week's study was from Exodus 14.  Israel has walked out of Egypt and are approaching the Red Sea.  They see that the Egyptians are coming over the hills and are feeling trapped as they camp in the valley.  The Israelites are afraid and stop to cry out to God about their incredibly desperate situation.  I laughed when I heard God's response.  I was surprised at how relevant it was to me right now.

"Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!" Exodus 14:15 NLT

Lately, I've heard a lot about uncertainty in future plans.  Uncertainty is true for all of us on some level, but some more so than others.  For me, I'm coming up on a time where my social support is about to be rocked because dear people in my life being faithful to calls in many and various places that are not near me.  To that, I say, "Wait, Lord.  I'm not ready yet.  Put something else in place for me before they leave.  Write up a couple of proposals for Your plans of how you will provide for me, so I can be at ease.  Don't change anything until I have it figured out and know it's going to be okay."

I find myself insistent on waiting when I am out of control.  If I don't know how something will work out, I don't want to jump in until I do know.  I heard this same sentiment from a friend about a job issue, another about a relationship situation, and still another about financial plans.  We want to know the outcome before we take a step.  God is asking something different of us.

Israel was crying out to God.  Can you imagine?  There's no where for you to go and the enemy is on your heels.  I would be the first to say that we need to stop and figure out what God is doing before we do anything else.  It's then that God simply says, "I already told you what to do and that I am leading you to the Promised Land.  Keep walking.  Trust me and keep walking."  God asks something different of us because He knows the great provision He's laid before us.

It makes me think of one of our craziest nights in Ghana.  We got to our hotel late in the evening.  It was at the end of a dark and winding road.  Branches of the rain forest scraped along the bus windows as we drove.  All of a sudden we stopped moving and the only sound on the bus was that of tires spinning in thick mud.  We were a very large bus stuck in a very large mud pit with no dry ground to allow us to passage.  Soon after, they had everyone get off the bus and walk the rest of the way of the dark road to our hotel, but the bus still had to get through and somehow it did.  The next morning, we loaded our luggage on the bus and walked down the same muddy road in the daylight this time.  On our walk back, we could see the wooden planks that some men had laid down to create dry ground for the bus to get traction on.

I thought back to the night before.  Our driver didn't know what the next bit of ground would have in store, but just in front of him there was dry ground to move forward on.  Life beyond the plank of wood was unknown, but he drove on in trust that the bus would make it.  In the daylight, we could see the planks and how they led to dry ground.  We could see the path that had been prepared for the bus to follow, but on the way there it was uncertain.

We can always see it walking back down memory lane.  We can see how God prepared the way for us and what He was doing all along, but while we're walking on our journey, we can only see the next plank in front of us.  He's asking us to keep walking.  Don't wait until you're in control, but walk in faith.  Believe that God is our Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.  Take steps knowing that God made dry ground for Israel and He will for you, too.  Do what He says.  Keep moving.

stones will roll.

Maybe it's just because I'm a girl, but I adore the resurrection accounts.  You may not see the connection initially, but it's there.

Mark 16 tells the story...
      When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb  and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
     But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.  As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 

I've written about this story before, but it's been on my mind lately.  Well, really one aspect of the story.  The stone.

Mary, Mary, and Salome wake up early.  They stir getting spices ready so that they can leave for Jesus' tomb as soon as Sabbath breaks.  I can just imagine them walking quietly together; still pondering all that had transpired in the past few days.  Their Lord and friend was dead.  All they knew to do now was honor him by anointing His body.  Details are unclear in the fog of grief.  It hadn't occurred to them how this would all happen until it hits them, "who will roll the stone away?"  Yet they continued on their journey to honor Jesus, only to find the original rolling stone no longer blocking the tomb.

The thing I love about these women, though, is that they kept walking.  They didn't stop and wait for someone or something to come along that could move the stone.  They didn't turn around and go back reassuring themselves that they had good intentions of honoring Jesus.  They didn't do what I would've done, which in such an emotional state as it was, sit on the side of the road and have an emotional breakdown.  They didn't do any of these things.  They pressed on, just wanting to be near their Lord and trusting that somehow they could honor Him.

I don't have to tell you that there are stones in life.  Boy, are there stones!  As I look at this story, I think of all the looming stones in my life.  I think of the other people walking with me and the stones that they face.  Nobody knows how they're going to get moved.  Some you just kind of play by ear with a fair amount of certainty that they'll just go away.  Others are absolutely terrifying and so large in size that you're powerless to budge them.  I think satan delights in our stones of life.  He wants us to get all worked up and distracted by the stones that get in the way of our peace, joy, goals, healing, and ultimately our trust in the goodness of who God is among us.  We get so distracted by the stones that we freeze in our tracks, forgetting who our God is and that He gives us all good things.  We get so sidetracked with the stones of life that we don't realize they've been rolled back to reveal an empty space.  We're so focused on the stones that we carry on as if they still block the tombs of our world.

The women walked on uncertain of how it would work, only to find salvation and freedom.  That tomb and all others that loom about us were opened that morning.  As Tomlin says, "Jesus has overcome and the grave is overwhelmed."  God is so much bigger than the stone in our way.  Keep walking while you wait for stones to be moved, wounds to be healed, light to be shined.  Jesus told His friends that He'd rise in three days and sure enough, the stone was removed.  As we're walking into trials, God has given us His promises to trust in.  He's asking us as we are uncertain and fearful about what is coming up in our path, that we trust in His power to do all things and to look out for our good.  Trust that God is who He says He is.  He goes before us.  He rolls away stones away from tombs we didn't even know we had.  God's a stone roller.  In the meantime, keep walking, trusting in the hope and freedom in a stone that's been rolled.