Several months ago, one of my first entries was called “What Do We Do?” about waiting. I said that while we are waiting we need to be doing what God wants us to do, which is the work of God. And what is the work of God? John 6:29 said this: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” Simple, but not always easy. When we think of waiting, usually we are looking ahead, to the future but not necessarily seeing clearly. Then I wrote, “Maybe what God wants is that whatever we choose to do, we do it with a believing heart, a heart that trusts God, that he is working through us….” So from this perspective we are moving forward toward what we can’t see.
This morning I read a short article by Skip Moen passed along to me by a friend. This article addresses waiting from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures. Moen puts it this way:
“…if you are Hebrew, the future is ‘behind’ you. You are in the row boat, your back to the direction you wish to travel, looking at where you have already been. Your future is behind you. Your hope is what you cannot see. But your true line of travel comes from alignment with the past, what you can see, where you have already been. If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions. Waiting is not floating. It is rowing. So, sit down and row. Be active in your waiting. Secure what lies behind you by putting your oars in the water in line with God’s wake.”
Anyone who has rowed a small boat knows that you pick a spot on the horizon that you are facing and keep that in front of you. That helps you keep the boat aimed at the right place on the other shore. As you guide by that landmark in front of you, you know you will get to the spot on the other side without having to turn around and look constantly for the right place to land.
Aren't we are looking at two sides of the same coin here, so to speak? Believing in “the one he has sent” involves knowing who he is, and from this side of the cross, we can only know who he is by looking back at his life through the Scriptures, both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. We can keep moving toward the future as we align our movement with what we know of the faithfulness and power and goodness of God. We will get to where he wants us because we will know him better.
“If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with his past actions.”
This morning I read a short article by Skip Moen passed along to me by a friend. This article addresses waiting from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures. Moen puts it this way:
“…if you are Hebrew, the future is ‘behind’ you. You are in the row boat, your back to the direction you wish to travel, looking at where you have already been. Your future is behind you. Your hope is what you cannot see. But your true line of travel comes from alignment with the past, what you can see, where you have already been. If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions. Waiting is not floating. It is rowing. So, sit down and row. Be active in your waiting. Secure what lies behind you by putting your oars in the water in line with God’s wake.”
Anyone who has rowed a small boat knows that you pick a spot on the horizon that you are facing and keep that in front of you. That helps you keep the boat aimed at the right place on the other shore. As you guide by that landmark in front of you, you know you will get to the spot on the other side without having to turn around and look constantly for the right place to land.
Aren't we are looking at two sides of the same coin here, so to speak? Believing in “the one he has sent” involves knowing who he is, and from this side of the cross, we can only know who he is by looking back at his life through the Scriptures, both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. We can keep moving toward the future as we align our movement with what we know of the faithfulness and power and goodness of God. We will get to where he wants us because we will know him better.
“If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with his past actions.”
