A couple of weeks ago we looked at the book of Micah. The "One Hit Wonder" was found in Micah 6:8, "And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God". The verse that jumped out at me, however, was Micah 7:7, "But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for my Savior, my God will hear me." It reminds me of the phrase "the waiting rooms of life", those times when we are waiting for answers to prayer, waiting for ?? to change, waiting for …whatever. Covid 19 has put us all in a "waiting room" of sorts --waiting for businesses and schools and sports and other activities and venues to reopen...waiting to get back to "normal".
In the midst of all this craziness and waiting, I received an answer to prayer that I have been "watching for with hope", a smaller, ranch style home. My desire was not just for the logic of having one level as we age or less "house work" (although these are great benefits), but simplicity. I was first drawn to the idea of simplicity when reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. As Foster explains, "Simplicity is freedom." To me, it is the gift of spending less time with tasks that "need" done and more time to "be available" for people and needs God brings my way. As one friend described the result of downsizing, "I feel like I'm on vacation!"
Our new home is virtually maintenance free, quiet, peaceful, closer to many places we frequent, and has provided a large number of items on our wish list for a home, plus many more. It felt risky to buy and sell during a pandemic, but God was clearly leading the way and His ways often defy logic. I could share stories of my new porch swing, our wonderful neighbors, Lance's high ceilings, Chelsea's golf cart access, the fence and shrub boundaries for the yard, the timing of the move in regards to Covid 19 restrictions, time with and help from our older "kids", and many more blessings. What's important, though, is to know God was "in it" and to be reminded that I don't just have to sit idly in the waiting room, but I can "watch in hope" and know God hears me."
I suppose we are all in some sort of waiting room; if nothing else, we are awaiting Christ's reappearing or our crossing into the promised land. I also know many people who are in more difficult waiting rooms where "watching in hope" requires concerted effort and prayer. Several are waiting to see if their cancer treatments will be effective...waiting for scan or ultrasound results...waiting for the impending loss of sending their adult children to college...waiting with anticipation and/or apprehension to see how the first days of kindergarten will go...waiting to see how long they have to be separated from their family members due to Covid 19...or waiting to find out if they will be laid off from their jobs.
I pray for each one of these friends and family members, and each one who reads this, to be able to watch in hope and with confidence that God hears them. And I pray that the resulting answers to the waiting causes them to say with me, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance" (Psalm 16:6).
Let me leave you with a song I have been enjoying by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton called "There Was Jesus". The chorus is as follows:
"In the waiting, in the searching
In the healing, in the hurting
Like a blessing buried in the broken pieces
Every minute, every moment
Where I've been or where I'm going
Even when I didn't know it
Or couldn't see it
There was Jesus"