Monday, October 17, 2011

Waiting Patiently

Day two hundred eighty-five

Today I was able to participate in a cause that was way bigger than me. My husband had been invited to teach a class for an organization called Mt. Emily's Child Abuse Center and I got to tag along.  I was able to meet some remarkable people who have dedicated a lot of time and effort into the prevention of and treatment for child abuse.  Needless to say we made some new friends at this event and learned a lot about ways we can help.  I am so grateful for people who choose to help people deal with some of the most difficult situations in their lives.  They take a dark moment or moments and bring in the light.  My prayer is for them and for the victims.  May God bless them all! 

2 Kings 6
Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, was besieged by the Arameans. A city under siege would be surrounded and blockaded, preventing the inhabitants from importing supplies. Eventually, the food within the city would run out, and the people would begin to starve. They would either surrender or die. This was an effective method for armies to attack walled cities with few casualties inflicted upon their own number.

As would be expected, the famine in Samaria became desperate. The food was gone, and anything that was almost edible, no matter how disgusting, was sold at exorbitant prices.

One day during the siege, the king of Israel was confronted with a terrible situation. Two women had agreed to mutual cannibalistic infanticide. But after cannibalizing the one child, the second mother hid her child. You can see how desperate the situation was inside the walls of Samaria.

This was prophesied as one of the signs of God’s judgment on the nation when they would not follow after the Lord (Deut. 28:52-58). It would happen again when Nebuchadnezzar would come against Jerusalem in 586 BC (Lam. 4:10), and again when the Romans would wipe out Jerusalem in AD 70.

I understand that desperate times call for desperate actions, but this is just plain disgusting. These ladies were desperate enough that they chose to eat their children! The really sad part is that they were only a day away from the end of the famine. Sometimes our moments of panic cause us to do things that aren’t necessary.

I read a story recently about a man who awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size water bed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling on the hilly terrain. He tried to hold it back, but it headed downhill and landed in a clump of bushes, which poked it full of holes. Disgusted, he threw out the water bed frame and moved a standard bed into his room. The next morning, he woke to find a puddle of water in the middle of the new bed. The upstairs bathroom had a leaky drain.

Sometimes God’s answers come by waiting patiently.  Had the two women waited they would not have had to do such a disgusting thing, like eat a baby, had the man waited he could have saved himself a lot of aggravation and effort. 

In my search for more information on this topic I came across this story:

A young, new preacher was walking with an older, more seasoned preacher in the garden one day and feeling a bit insecure about what God had for Him to do, he was inquiring of the older preacher. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the WILL OF GOD for his life and for his ministry. Because of his high respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to TRY to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact...It wasn't long before he realized how impossible it was to do so. Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older preacher began to recite the following poem...
It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of GOD's design;
But I cannot unfold its petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
 
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly,
When in my hands they fade and die.
 
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of GOD's design,
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
 
So I'll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day.
I will look to him for His guidance
Each step along my way.
 
The pathway that lies before me,
Only my Heavenly Father knows.
I'll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.
--- Author Unknown

Now, I have never done anything so drastic as eating a baby, but there have been times in my life when I have decided to take action and then realized that all the worry, thought, and effort I put into it wasn't necessary. This story really puts that lesson front and center. 

I cannot imagine how these two women felt when they learned that it wasn't necessary to sacrifice their children.  How do you ever get over something like that?  Instead of dwelling on their actions, I want to remember the lesson and apply it to my life so that I might never have to feel such pain and guilt and sorrow as they did.

Waiting patiently, that's the key.  The next time I am feeling overwhelmed and panicked I need to remember that it probably isn't as bad as I am making it out to be.  I need to remember to trust in the Lord and know that there is nothing that He cannot handle.  I need to remember that it isn't for me to unfold the rosebud, but to leave such things in the capable hands of God.



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