Making Conversation with God

As you know if you've read any of my recent posts, God has been teaching me about waiting. You would think that I would have gotten the message by now. How many different ways can God tell me the same thing? But for some reason, this has been a really hard lesson for me to learn. I get so excited about things that I want to make them happen right away.

This week I have been goat-sitting for a friend. As one might expect from someone with such a pastoral inclination, her house is a ways out of town. This has given me some extra time to think while enjoying a beautiful drive. Charlottesville in spring is lovely beyond compare.

So yesterday I used this extra time to have a little chat with God. I decided to try out a new method of prayer where I actually talk to God out loud. I'll admit I felt a little bit strange at first, especially when people drove past me and saw me talking to an empty car. But I figured I talk to my friends out loud, so why should talking to my Best Friend be any different? Here's the kicker - He actually talked back.

I don't know why I am always surprised when God talks to me. He says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (Jer. 33:3). I speak and God responds. It's still amazing to me.

But yesterday I hadn't asked for great and unsearchable things. I was actually just talking about the weather. You know, trying to break the ice a little. I complimented God on the wonderful job He had done creating this most glorious day. And then I offered a little request: Please don't let us miss spring and go straight into summer. There was cause for concern regarding this yesterday. It was 91 degrees, after all. I was afraid the trees were going to go straight to green and skip my favorite pink, white, and yellow springtime blooms altogether.

Here is where the great and unsearchable things part came in. God answered: "You have asked not to miss out on the beautiful colors of spring by rushing right into summer. You think spring is a delightful time to be savored; a blessing. So why, in your own life, do you want to rush right into what you perceive to be the next season in your life? You want to skip over the season I've given to you right now, a season that may very well be full of beautiful colors to be treasured, because you think the next season is going to be better."

Wow. That is exactly what I have been doing. Wishing away the current season so I can move on to the next thing. When I consider the seasons, I know that spring has comfortable temperatures and glorious flowers everywhere, and it gives way to summer, hotter and stickier, but with its own set of joys. In life, I don't know what my next season holds. But I can be sure that the God who created the spring I love and who promises to withhold no good thing from me (Ps. 84:11) has given me beauty for the season I'm in right now. So I'm going to stop wishing away my seasons and start enjoying the beauty of life right now - the precious present.