Tag Archives: patience

Way to listen

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(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.)

“My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.’ ” (Psalm 20:7)

That’s a great way to start a day. Or end a day.

David, the guy who wrote those words, preceded those thoughts by saying, “Hear me as I pray, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me!” So God did respond by asking David to sit down and talk. Then in the talking with God, David would get his answers.

How often are we willing to sit down and talk with God? Talk. Listen. (Not just talk.)

A great time to do that might be on your drive (or train ride) to work. Or on the plane to that next conference, when you just don’t feel like talking to the person next to you. God will listen, without complaining. He usually doesn’t talk till you are ready to listen to Him. That’s not always true. Sometimes He shouts at us when we won’t listen any other way. Often He will talk through events in our lives. The “wake up!” variety.

Sometimes we are in a place where God seems silent. It’s helpful to zip down to the end of that Psalm to see how David responded to that situation: “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”

Being patient can be really hard. Maybe it’s one of the hardest things we will face. But David urges us to be brave in the face of the unknown. Maybe you’re waiting on a job. Waiting on your daughter to choose her life direction, on trying for a baby or finding a life partner. Or waiting to see how you can make ends meet this month. Be brave. Wait. And talk to God. And listen.


loving through interruptions.

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Jesus is counting down the hours he has with the disciples. He’s facing death. It’s a burden. Though he knows it will turn out okay eventually, he is not looking forward to the process. So he’s covering the important stuff, the ideas that will be on the exam.

Judas leaves the room, Jesus takes a deep breath, and says,

“Okay. Let’s start. This is the end of the beginning. I’m going to leave. Here’s what I want you to do: Love one another. The way that people are going to know that you belong to me, that you are following me, that you have learned anything from me, is by how you take care of each other.”

It’s great teaching. It gives a reason for paying attention (I’m leaving, listen closely).

But Peter wasn’t ready for the command part.

“Where are you going?”

You can’t go, Jesus says.

“But I want to go with you. Why can’t I go? I always go with you. You can’t take a step without me being there. Remember on the water? I was there. Remember the mountain? I was there. Remember identifying who you are? That was me. Getting money out of the mouth of the fish? Me.”

And Jesus says that Peter is going to say he doesn’t know Jesus three times before the next morning.

And then Jesus answers Peter’s question, the one about where he is going.

It’s funny, isn’t it? Jesus rewards Peter’s disruptive classroom behavior. Jesus should have said, “Peter, you aren’t listening to me. Why don’t you go sit in the corner. Now class, let’s talk about this the important thing, loving one another.”

Instead, Jesus showed his love for Peter.

1. He warned him about the upcoming failure.

2. He kept talking to Peter.

That’s what love looks like.

i bet they weren’t ready

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Jesus and his disciples were attracting a crowd. People came, the disciples baptized, the religious leaders noticed.

They had the story wrong, of course. They thought Jesus was doing baptizing. But still, they noticed.

For some reason, when Jesus hears about the attention, he heads out of town, back toward home.

It could be that he was running scared. Somehow, that doesn’t seem likely. What is more likely is that he was protecting the disciples from premature popularity. He needs to spend the next couple years teaching them.

Sometime our spiritual promotions are slow because we have more to learn.

unexpected grace

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I understand why we have the pictures we do of God. Angry, authoritarian, destructive. There are stories of people dying throughout the Bible that seem to point us that way.

While I could debate those right now, I’d like to offer a couple of other stories to think about.

Moses is the leader of the people of Israel. He is, spiritually, a big deal. And we know from watching the news, that spiritual big deals fail. At least, that’s what we believe.

One day God tells Moses to speak to a rock so that water will come out. On his way to the rock, he gets mad, and like any parent understands, he hits the rock saying, “Do I have to do everything for you?”

Later, God tells Moses that he will not lead the people into the promised land.

And Moses didn’t.

Fast-forward several centuries.

Jesus and three followers are on a mountain. The followers look up and see Jesus glowing, and two guys with him: Elijah and Moses. Peter speaks up and gets shushed by God. The followers hide their faces until Jesus touches them on the shoulder and says, “have no fear.”

Moses, who had been kept out of the promised land, gets to stand there with Jesus. Peter, who gets told to be quiet by God, isn’t zapped with lightening.

According to common views of God, these examples are unexpected. Moses should have been finished. Peter should have been zapped. But they weren’t.

Their behavior isn’t condoned. God doesn’t say, “Peter, your theme park idea is a good try. We’ll think about that next time.” However, be very ware that God did not say, “Peter, you are an idiot. I’m done with you.”

Peter’s sentence for overstepping his influence?

He had to keep walking with Jesus.

an unspiritual discipline

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“Every time you say no or say yes, put an x on a calendar.”

We’ve been looking doable actions coming out of Titus 2:11-14. We’ve talked about activities that have been pretty spiritual – praying, knowing that God loves us, saying no to ungodliness, saying yes to godliness.

These are important actions, and doable. They also feel unmeasurable.

This isn’t new, of course, the feeling of wondering about progress.  That’s why people piled up stones as reminders of what God had done, as reminders of notable conversations with God. When you walk past the stones, you see reminders of interaction.

Sometimes we need marks. Sometimes we need indicators. Sometimes we need reminders that something happened.

That’s why we write, whether journals or diaries or blogs. They provide EKGs of our spiritual heartbeat, tangible tracks that we can review to remember. However,  sometimes, a simple mark on a calendar can note a day when something happened, something significant, something worth tracking.

It’s possible to make marks day after day as well. A set of marks on a page can show progress, or at least actions, or perhaps consistency.

For example, what if you are wanting to learn to say no to screaming at a coworker? It has been happening every day. Until last Tuesday. You woke up and said, “God, this has got to stop.” And with a variety of actions, you end up not screaming. Put an x on a calendar. Happened again Wednesday. Another mark. Thursday, lost it.  Friday, kept quiet.

Now you have a calendar with three marked days, three days when you said no, with God’s help. Three small altars that prove you wrong when you say, “I always” and when you say, “I can’t.”

“Every time you say no or say yes, put an x on a calendar.”