His Timing and Strength in Every Phase of Life
#318 His Timing and Strength in Every Phase of Life
I found out Wednesday January 21st in the early evening that my father’s health was declining rapidly. My Thursday evening flight would not get me there in time to be with him when he passed away. But the LORD made up for the timing. My sister phoned me from the room at Hospice, and I was able to be on speaker phone, present with my Dad in the last hours of his life. I got to say to him what was on my heart with the phone by his ear. I had the privilege to pray. And I had the privilege of singing hymns with the rest of the family. Three hours had gone by and we sang “I Need Thee Every Hour” and just as we finished that hymn he took his last breath. “I need thee, O I need thee, every hour I need thee. O Bless me now my Savior, I come to thee.”
The LORD is so merciful, to provide this opportunity to be present with my Dad in his final hours. How my Heavenly Father has inspired and encouraged me through my Dad. I want to express the honor of having him as my Dad and my brother in Christ some of the next meditations.
Here is the first. It’s about the Lord’s timing. Sometimes experiences seem to unfold quickly, and sometimes experiences are over periods of years. I found a six page letter that my Dad wrote me back in 1997. (The only reason I came across it was because my daughter Jamie asked me to find some of her childhood artwork for an art class she is taking. Again, the Lord’s timing (!) to find this letter just when I needed it. This letter brought to life some of the details of my father’s life, his pre- Alzheimer’s life, that I had forgotten over the years. And it brought me much joy to see the same themes and character strength still alive in him amid his limitations.)
“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles…” [Isaiah 40:31 KJV] We humans tend to demand things get done quickly. ‘The quicker the better.’ God, however is not in a hurry. After all, He has already lived an eternity of the past with no problem. He is looking for quality, not speed in our maturing process! He knows that a postponement is necessary for whatever reason and may help us lean more heavily upon Him. He is really saying: “If you love me, lean heavily upon Me.” Viewing our experience from the vantage point of heaven, will make them see small, even trivial.
The gradual onset of Alzheimer’s or some other condition over a period of years, the long-term illness and challenge that never seems to end, the times of drastic and quick changes in our lives and the times of ‘crash course in character’ and quick progress, all of the timing is His. I love the thought that “He is looking for quality, not speed in our maturing process.”
“They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” (NASB) There is strength for every phase of experience, strength to mount and rise above on the wings of His Truth and perspective, strength when things progress quickly, strength when we plod along one step at a time.
Or perhaps it is a picture from youth to older age. We start out flying, then we run, then we walk. At one point earlier in the disease my Dad would get discouraged because something seemed wrong with his brain and he was limited. He would read the verse from Exodus 4:2 “What is that in thine hand?” He would say, “God isn’t asking what is in your neighbor’s hand, or what USED to be in your hand, but ‘what is in your hand now?’ ” I watched my Dad wait on and lean heavily on the LORD in each phase of his life and in every phase of his experience.
If we love Him, we will wait on Him and lean heavily upon Him for strength in every next experience, trusting His timing, ready to gain new strength.
I found out Wednesday January 21st in the early evening that my father’s health was declining rapidly. My Thursday evening flight would not get me there in time to be with him when he passed away. But the LORD made up for the timing. My sister phoned me from the room at Hospice, and I was able to be on speaker phone, present with my Dad in the last hours of his life. I got to say to him what was on my heart with the phone by his ear. I had the privilege to pray. And I had the privilege of singing hymns with the rest of the family. Three hours had gone by and we sang “I Need Thee Every Hour” and just as we finished that hymn he took his last breath. “I need thee, O I need thee, every hour I need thee. O Bless me now my Savior, I come to thee.”
The LORD is so merciful, to provide this opportunity to be present with my Dad in his final hours. How my Heavenly Father has inspired and encouraged me through my Dad. I want to express the honor of having him as my Dad and my brother in Christ some of the next meditations.
Here is the first. It’s about the Lord’s timing. Sometimes experiences seem to unfold quickly, and sometimes experiences are over periods of years. I found a six page letter that my Dad wrote me back in 1997. (The only reason I came across it was because my daughter Jamie asked me to find some of her childhood artwork for an art class she is taking. Again, the Lord’s timing (!) to find this letter just when I needed it. This letter brought to life some of the details of my father’s life, his pre- Alzheimer’s life, that I had forgotten over the years. And it brought me much joy to see the same themes and character strength still alive in him amid his limitations.)
“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles…” [Isaiah 40:31 KJV] We humans tend to demand things get done quickly. ‘The quicker the better.’ God, however is not in a hurry. After all, He has already lived an eternity of the past with no problem. He is looking for quality, not speed in our maturing process! He knows that a postponement is necessary for whatever reason and may help us lean more heavily upon Him. He is really saying: “If you love me, lean heavily upon Me.” Viewing our experience from the vantage point of heaven, will make them see small, even trivial.
The gradual onset of Alzheimer’s or some other condition over a period of years, the long-term illness and challenge that never seems to end, the times of drastic and quick changes in our lives and the times of ‘crash course in character’ and quick progress, all of the timing is His. I love the thought that “He is looking for quality, not speed in our maturing process.”
“They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” (NASB) There is strength for every phase of experience, strength to mount and rise above on the wings of His Truth and perspective, strength when things progress quickly, strength when we plod along one step at a time.
Or perhaps it is a picture from youth to older age. We start out flying, then we run, then we walk. At one point earlier in the disease my Dad would get discouraged because something seemed wrong with his brain and he was limited. He would read the verse from Exodus 4:2 “What is that in thine hand?” He would say, “God isn’t asking what is in your neighbor’s hand, or what USED to be in your hand, but ‘what is in your hand now?’ ” I watched my Dad wait on and lean heavily on the LORD in each phase of his life and in every phase of his experience.
If we love Him, we will wait on Him and lean heavily upon Him for strength in every next experience, trusting His timing, ready to gain new strength.
