On Tuesday, our Equip Her leaders gathered to get ready for our fall session which starts in just 5 days!! Shereen had this to share with us. Are you waiting on something? If so, I know her words will speak to you as they did to me.
I’ve discovered something about myself – a latent but growing desire. I like to rummage!
Webster’s dictionary uses these words to describe RUMMAGE: “To discover by searching, a thorough investigation.”
Yep, I like to search and discover what I consider to be “treasures.”
Others might call them “junk.” But to me, there is potential and promise in them.
I was on an outdoor rummage through cluster of old trees a few months ago. I was looking for pieces of worn and weathered wood. It didn’t take long to pick up a load of cast-off bark and rotten logs, and I was ready to head home. Then I stepped on a lump under the grass. It was a grey lump that looked like wood but I was afraid it might be a hornet hive that had fallen!
So, I moved on . . . only a few steps, though. Then I came back. The rummage gene had taken over my fear of being stung by a nest full of hornets!
I kicked it – hollow.
I pulled the grass away – nothing flew out at me.
I grabbed a stick and pried up the chunk.
Gratefully, it was an old piece of tree. Half was missing, dissolved into the ground, eaten by bugs. But the half that remained was beautiful.
I took my treasures home to de-bug and clean up.
For weeks, I answered the question, “What are you doing with that old wood on the picnic table?!” I even had to save my “treasures” from being burned a few times.
Finally, I was ready to seal the wood –to preserve the beauty and find a new use for it in my house. (I have my eye on some succulents.)
I saw potential in that old wood. For me, rummaging holds the promise of hidden beauty revealed . . . a re-purposing of something discarded.
I’ve been reading the whole Bible through this year and it’s like a rummage too.
- There are old stories that I’ve forgotten– remember the talking donkey?
- timeless truths buried–I had no idea how many times “a wise woman” saved God’s people
- and there is a hopeful truth that God’s timing is not our timing. God loves to let us WAIT.
Waiting isn’t a bad thing. The passage of time in a matter doesn’t mean God has forgotten or left us out. More likely, it means He’s working on something truly amazing!
Job declared from the middle of his ash heap: “But He knows where I am going. And when He tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths, I have followed his ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured his words more than daily food.” Job 23:10-12
Then a little later, when he recalled the power of God on the earth, Job exclaimed – “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” Job 26:14
Job waited well, yes?
Having lost everything–every crop, animal, dwelling, child, every moment of rest and ease, emotionally and physically–with no good explanations, no blame or recourse, Job waited with HOPE and trust in God’s timing.
There are things I have waited for, prayed for, surrendered to God to handle. And I can say that I have followed God’s ways, not turning aside but treasuring His Words more than daily food.
And God seems to be saying . . . those surrendered things are logs, lying among the trees–dormant. But even those logs are being transformed, changed from the inside out. God is thundering and moving in ways I can’t understand.
And it’s like He whispers–someday there will be a rummage and you will see the promise and the purpose. And, yes, the beauty of waiting.
Mind if I pray for us?
God-of-my-waiting ~ Forgive me for the times I tried to rush ahead of your ways. Settle my heart on what you hold dear and make me a patient woman. Perhaps someone reading this today is also waiting– give her courage and steady hope. We’re not experiencing this life alone, so give us a place to share and understand You together. Until that day when we step into Your eternal Presence and time will be no more, help us to find beauty in this waiting room.
Equip Her 