waiting

Another New Favorite

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I ran across another great worship song that strikes me as being a bit of a lament. It’s telling God, “This is where I am, and this is how I feel, but this is what I’ve come to learn about You.”

I hope these words will speak to you, especially if you’re in the midst of a struggle or a low period in your life. I’ve also included a video in case you want to hear it:

“How long will I have to hear the stories
Of how you were able
How long will I have to celebrate
The miracle that’s not my own
How long will I lift my voice and sing again
That you are always good
When I’m feeling all this distance
I thought I never would
How long

As long as it takes for my heart to find its song
As long as it takes to know I’m still not alone
And at the end of the day
I’ll stand right here and say
I know that you love me miracle or not

How long will I give myself
Before I give up waiting
How long will I have to hide behind this smile
That says that I’m okay
How long will I hold on to the promises
I thought I heard you speak
When every passing day
Just leaves me broken down and weak

As long as it takes for my heart to find its song
As long as it takes to know I’m still not alone
And at the end of the day
I’ll stand right here and say
I know that you love me miracle or not

I will sing it ’til my broken heart believes it
I’ll declare it ’til I smell the smoke of faith
And with my hands held high
I’ll scream it to the darkness
‘Til hope is finally louder than the ache

I will sing it ’til my broken heart believes it
I’ll declare it ’til I smell the smoke of faith
And with my hands held high
I’ll scream it in the darkness
‘Til hope is finally louder than the ache

As long as it takes for my heart to find its song
As long as it takes to know I’m still not alone
And at the end of the day
I’ll stand right here and say
I know that you love me
I know that you love me
I know that you love me miracle or not
Miracle or not” (Michael Farren / Mark Alan Schoolmeesters / Lou Fellingham)

Nearer Home

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O’er the hill the sun is setting,
And the eve is drawing on,
Slowly drops the gentle twilight,
For another day is gone,
Gone for aye, its race is over,
Soon the dark’ning shades will come,
Still ’tis sweet to know at evening,
We are one day nearer home.
Still ’tis sweet to know at evening,
We are one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Something else I read about Elisabeth Elliott recently said that one of her favorite camp songs growing up was called Nearer Home. It was something she evidently thought about quite a bit as she grew older and started losing her memory due to dementia. This speaks to anyone who is facing their own mortality or the mortality of a loved one. We as believers in Christ are truly getting nearer home each and ever day:

“One day nearer, sings the sailor,
As he glides the waters o’er,
While the light is softly dying,
On his distant native shore,
Thus the Christian, on life’s ocean,
As his lightboat cuts the foam,
In the evening cries with rapture,
I am one day nearer home.
In the evening cries with rapture,
I am one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
|Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Nearer home, yes, one day nearer,
To our home beyond the sky,
To the green fields and the fountains,
In our Father’s home on high,
For the heav’ns are growing brighter,
And the lamps hang in the dome,
And our hearts are growing lighter,
For we’re one day nearer home.

Nearer home, nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know
We are one day nearer home,
Nearer home; nearer home,
Oh, ‘tis always sweet to know at even,
We are one day nearer home.

Father, be near when my feet
Are slipping o’er the brink,
For it may be I am nearer home,
Nearer now than I think” (Alice Carey).

The Deepest Spiritual Lessons

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“The deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done” (Elisabeth Elliot).

If anyone knew about deep spiritual lessons, it was Elisabeth Elliot. She was twice widowed and her life was never an easy one from her birth until the day God called her home. But she learned so much wisdom that she was able to impart to so many others, including me. Her legacy of faith has outlived her and still speaks to the goodness and faithfulness of God.

I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes me not getting my own way is not only good but a blessing. I sometimes look back and thank God for saving me from my own desires and from me getting what I thought I wanted or even needed at the time which probably would have destroyed me.

The older I get, the more I understand that God knows way better than I what’s good for me. The older I get, the more I find myself praying that old prayer that never fails: Thy will be done. It’s the only prayer that has yet to steer me wrong.

Look at the disciples. None of them had any idea when they started with Jesus what the rest of their lives would look like. All but one ended up being martyred for the faith, and the last one ended up as a lonely exile on the island of Patmos. But again, their legacy lasted far longer and still speaks hundreds of years later.

That’s it. The simplest and best prayer to pray when you don’t know what else to pray is Your will be done. Even when you have a good idea of what you want from God, it’s best to caveat it with Your will be done. I’d rather have God disrupt every single one of my own plans and desires if it means His will for my life is accomplished.

Lord, have Your way in every one of Your children. Teach us to love what You love, and desire what You desire. Above all, Your will be done in us and through us. Amen.

God Knows

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I went hiking at Radnor Lake State Park after work today. It’s been a while, and with all the damage from the ice storm a few months back, the park looked a bit different since the last time.

At least that’s my excuse. Somehow, I missed a turn or took a wrong turn and accidentally skipped part of the trail. I looked up expecting to see an incline but saw the road instead.

Then I remembered that I’ve had dreams about this sort of thing. I’ll be trying to get somewhere but I can never find it. Plus, in my dreams the scenery keeps changing so it’s basically impossible to find anything.

Life’s a bit like that. One day, you look up from scrolling social media or reading a book and wonder how you got where you are. Maybe you thought you’d still be working at the old job. Maybe you thought you’d be married by now. Or maybe you thought you’d have children by now.

It’s not so much that you’re lost, but you’re not where you wanted to be. Some days, it seems that your dreams are dead and you’ll never get to your desired destination. You wonder how you got where you are and if God is even on the job.

But God knows. He’s never taken by surprised by what happens to you. In fact, He works every little detail in your life for His glorious purposes. Maybe God’s saving you from something you can’t yet see. Or maybe God’s got a better destination in mind for you that you’re not ready to receive just yet.

God is big enough to accomplish all through you all that He requires of you. You need to show up and be prayed up and willing to do whatever He asks. Trust Him and above all trust His perfect timing. He will do it.

Waiting with Hope

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“There are times when everything looks very dark to me——-so dark that I have to wait before I have hope.Waiting with hope is very difficult, but true patience is expressed when we must even wait for hope. When we see no hint of success but refuse to despair, when we see nothing but the darkness of night through our window yet keep the shutters open because stars may appear in the sky, and when we have an empty place in our heart yet will not allow it to be filled with anything less then God’s best—- that is the greatest kind of patience in the universe. It is the story of Job in the midst of the storm, Abraham on the road to Moriah, Moses in the desert of Midian, and the Son of Man in the garden of Gethsemane. There is no patience as strong as that which endures because we see ‘him who is invisible’ (Hebrews 11:27). It is the kind of patience that waits for hope.

Dear Lord, You have made waiting beautiful and patience divine.You have taught us that Your will should be accepted, simply because it is Your will. You have revealed to us that a person may see nothing but sorrow in his cup yet still be willing to drink it because of a conviction that Your eyes see further then his own.

Father, give me Your divine power—- the power of Gethsemane. Give me the strength to wait for hope—to look through the window when there are no stars. Even when my joy is gone, give me strength to stand victoriously in the darkest night and say, ‘To my Heavenly Father, the sun still shines.’ I will have reached the point of greatest strength once I have learned to wait for hope. Strive to be one of the few who walk this earth with the ever present realization– every morning, noon, and night that the unknown that people call heaven is directly behind those things that are visible(Galatians 5:5). By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope” (George Matheson).

Amy Carmichael and Waiting

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“If I cannot hear ‘The sound of rain’ long before the rain falls, and then go out to some hilltop of the Spirit, as near to my God as I can and have faith to wait there with my face between my knees, though six times or sixty times I am told ‘There is nothing’, till at last there arises a little cloud out of the sea, then I know nothing of Calvary love (Read 1 Kings 18:41-45)” (Amy Carmichael).

We would get impatient after the first two times of waiting with no rain, but not Elijah. Seven times, he told his servant to go up and look toward the sea for any sign of rain. Six times, there was nothing. But the seventh time, there was a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.

Imagine waiting that long. Then imagine waiting 70 X 7 times for that rain. Is that too long to wait? In this current age where everything is instant and having to wait for anything is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment, then probably. But if it’s from God, it’s worth the wait, however long.

I love and appreciate the old writers like Amy Carmichael and Oswald Chambers because they didn’t mince words. They didn’t soft pedal the truth to sell more books. They spoke with the authority of a prophet and 100 years later, their words still ring true and speak to those with ears to hear.

Amy knew a bit about waiting. She was a missionary to India for 53 years and never had a furlough. She founded the Dohnavur Fellowship in 1901 with the aim of rescuing young girls from temple prostitution, making her the first to fight human trafficking long before it even had a name. It wasn’t until 1948, three years before she died, that temple prostitution was finally made illegal in India. That’s a long time to wait.

Waiting on God is never wasted. It’s always worth it because God is always worth it, and what He has for you is always worth waiting for. He is never early nor late with His promises, but always exactly right on time. People like Amy and Oswald learned through trials and suffering that they could trust Him, as do we when we learn to wait in silence upon the Lord.

Lord, again help us to wait well and trust Your promises even when everything seems to tell us differently. Our hope remains in You and Your stedfast love that never fails or runs out. Amen.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

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I have to say I’m really digging the concept of 12 days of Christmas. It’s helping me to get through all my Christmas records and movies. Plus, I love still seeing all the Christmas decorations that haven’t been taken down and stored away for 2026.

My hot take of the day is that I prefer colored lights over white. I’ll never judge anyone else for white lights on a Christmas tree, but colored lights make me feel nostalgic and childlike, especially when they’re the big old-fashion outside lights.

I’m still having my mind blown over something I read in one of my Advent books. Basically, God orchestrated the census of the Roman world, putting it into the mind of Caesar Augustus for the sole purpose of moving two people 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God also put a special celestial event in the sky to draw some foreigners to bring gifts to and worship the child Jesus.

All this to say that God will sometimes move heaven and earth for His children to accomplish His purposes for them. The saying goes that when you say impossible, you’re really saying “I’m possible.” Better yet, you can say, with God all things are possible.

This is a word to those who are waiting on God for a desire or a promise that they have not yet received. I’m speaking in faith to you tonight not to give up but to hold on to every single one of God’s promises to you that are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus. Don’t let despair overtake you when you’re closer than you know to the hopes and desires of your heart.

Above all, remember that God is near. God is still Emmanuel and still with us. He had not left us and He never will. That’s also a promise you can count on.

1st Sunday in Advent

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“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

I sometimes forget that Advent is not a season only for looking back to the incarnation but also looking forward to the second coming. The first time, Jesus came meek and lowly as an infant. The second time, He will come as a conquering King. No one will miss His arrival this time.

The older I get and the more I see of this crazy world, the more ready I am for Jesus to come back. Lord, we have lost our minds down here. It’s getting nuttier by the minute. I find myself uttering the phrase “make it make sense” so often these days.

But one day it will all make sense. One day it will all be made right. One day, I will finally be able to ask all the questions I’ve been saving up. Only they won’t matter anymore. All the questions I ever had will die on my lips when I see the King of glory coming with the clouds. I won’t need to ask any more questions because I will be looking at the Answer to all of them.

But in the meantime, we wait. We wait with expectant hope. Not a wishful thinking, pie in the sky kind of hope, but a confident, sure thing kind of hope. It’s so certain that we can speak of it as if it’s already happened. Like the Kingdom of God being now and not yet.

I’m thankful that while I didn’t grow up celebrating Advent, I’ve discovered it and grown to love it later in life. All the waiting and counting down makes Christmas so much more meaningful. Plus, I get those extra 12 days to make it last even longer (although technically, the 12 days aren’t really a part of Advent).

Lord, give us grace to wait well this Advent season, knowing that our waiting is never in vain and our hope in You is never wasted. Amen.

You Have a Choice

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I learned a long time ago that people tend to see the world according to their perspective. Negative people only see what’s wrong with the world, while sometimes positive people only see the good. There is such a thing as self-fulfilling prophecy where if you believe in a certain outcome, good or bad, you have a tendency to end up there.

A lot of success in life depends on your attitude. If you’re expecting to fail, you probably will. If you’re expectations are to succeed, the chances are much greater that you will. But I decided a long time ago to take a different road.

I choose to feel blessed because I am. Every day that I wake up is a gift from God.

I choose to feel grateful because everything I am and everything I have is a gift from God. I don’t deserve any of it, but God saw fit to bestow so much on me.

I choose to be excited because I know as a believer that the best is yet to come and that my best life is not now but coming soon.

I choose to be thankful for so many small ways that God shows up in my daily existence.

I choose to be happy. Better yet, I choose joy.

My expectations are all about what God wants for me. To succeed without God is just as bad as failing because it’s like climbing the ladder to the top only to realize it was against the wrong wall. Where you end up is not where you thought you would be.

My choice is to choose joy. Not happiness. There will be plenty of times when being happy is not an option, or at least not an appropriate one, but joy always is. Joy is simply contentment in Jesus. Nothing more, nothing less.

In A Little While

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“We are living in this ‘little while.’ We can live in it creatively when we live it out of solitude, that is, detached from the results of our work. And when we live it with care, that is, crying with those who weep and wail. But it is the expectation of his return which molds our solitude and care into a preparation for the day of great joy.

This is what we express when we take bread and wine in thanksgiving. We do not eat bread to still our hunger or drink wine to quench our thirst. We just eat a little bit of bread and drink a little bit of wine, in the realization that God’s presence is the presence of the One who came, but is still to come; who touched our hearts, but has not yet taken all our sadness away.

And so when we share some bread and wine together, we do this not as people who have arrived, but as men and women who can support each other in patient expectation until we see him again. And then our hearts will be full of joy, a joy that no one can take away from us” (Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude).

“In a little while,
We’ll be with the father;
Cant you see him smile?
In a little while,
We’ll be home forever,
In a while
We’re just here to learn to love him
Well be home in just a little while” (Amy Grant / Brown Bannister / Gary Chapman / Shane Keister).

Yes, I’m thankful that in a little while all the hard and bad stuff will be over and only what’s good and true will remain. In a little while, our faith will be made sight and we’ll be reunited with all those we’ve loved and lost. In a little while, Jesus will come back and take us to our forever home.