God never takes shortcuts

This week has been absolutely nothing short of a rollercoaster. Work has been ramping up, my parents have been travelling, and Clay and I are looking for a new place to live. Finally getting the chance to sit here and write this week feels like something I was never going to get to do. I am grateful! When considering a topic for this week, it seemed to wait awhile before hitting me. I went home to my parents' house to water plants and while I was there, I walked around the edge of our barn to see a flower broken off at the base of the stem. I did not recognize the flower, so I used an app that my mom had found (Picture This), snapped a photo, and waited for it to tell me what kind of bloom it was. While I waited, I took note of the delicate pollen sprayed across the petals, the pink hue of the flower itself, and the brightness that it displayed, even though it had been broken. I carried it with me and found out through Picture This that it is a Rain Lily, which is a perennial that blooms in the late summer to early autumn and usually right after heavy rainfalls.

Discovering what it was, when it bloomed, and the story of the particular stem I held in my hand, made me feel a little like the flower. The first thing that really stuck out to me about this little guy was when he bloomed. The other plants recently have been needing more attention, some of them have struggled to keep up with the sun and the blooms that were so bright and vivacious in May really need a lot of care to maintain the same appearance. This one caught my eye because it looked so fresh. This makes sense, as it said, literally in the description, the Rain Lily is a late bloomer. It does not pop up at the same time as the rest of the flowers, but rather waits until the end of summer to appear. I can relate. Anyone else a late bloomer? I was the fourth youngest kid in my entire grade. I didn't get braces until freshman year of high school, I was knees and elbows until a few years after that, and even though I tried my best, my personality refused to peek through my shy blue eyes anywhere outside of home until I was 20. Yea, I fit the criteria. My awkward years were many, and sometimes I still see glimpses of the person I was before I grew into myself, before I came to love the person I am, and before I really found out the ways I can contribute to the world. I am still learning and working on pieces of myself and am hopeful that I never stop and become complacent with who I am.

While my personal journey relates to being a late bloomer, I really think that regardless of when you 'bloom' we all feel like we are just a little ahead of the others or just a little behind. I mean this in regard to growing up, learning about the world, growth spurts in our spiritual journey, finding our career, marrying someone, having a family, and all the other times in life when we are most typical to 'bloom.' The times when we feel behind or ahead are limitless, but no matter which time in life we are talking about, I think it is fair to say that none of us really feel like we took it all in stride, right? We didn't just wake up one day and know how to handle things, learn how to respond to our emotions, and sort through things that challenge and change us. Growth is often a bumpy road and in the journey of life, we can find ourselves feeling like we are taking too long to figure something out, or that we rushed into or out of something without really thinking it through. In reality, trusting the timing of our growth can be really difficult.

Timing in a general sense can be hard for us to wrap our heads around. Think of all the times in life when we just don't know what to do, how we got to where we are, and where to go from here. These moments always seem to happen right before we learn something about ourselves. It is the period of rainfall, when our faith is tested, when we really feel broken or lost or confused. Failing to trust in the timing of it all is difficult and finding patience can be a serious challenge as well. In the chaos of this week, I have been frustrated with slow progress at work, having to rush through things that I wanted to take my time on, like cleaning our home or catching up on laundry. My point is that timing is a never-ending tightrope to walk, from the big life moments, like looking for a house or choosing a career, to the minute details of everyday life, like when to call someone or how much time to take on a task.

I think about the Rain Lily that God put in my life. It was the only one blooming, in a location with not a lot planted in it, but there it was. It bloomed at the perfect time. I'd had a rough day, I wanted to cry, and to see that little bloom there caused me to stop dwelling on myself for a moment and focus on this little wonder of God. I can only consider ourselves being so impatient to get things done, to grow up, to get there, and completely disregarding the plan God has for us to bloom when He says that it is time. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us that "He has made everything beautiful in its time." However, we can often find ourselves frustrated with feeling behind and we can grow anxious with our lack of patience. I had a few jobs that I worked for a while before finding one that I really love and fit in at. I remember feeling like I was just not someone who enjoyed working for someone else, I was frustrated because I did not have qualifications for jobs that I wanted to apply to, and more. The job search was a stressful one, and one that led me down many paths before I came to the one I have now. I am sure I am not alone when I say that I sometimes wonder why I had to go through my other experiences before getting to where I am now. Relationships are like this too. I dated a few guys before Clay, one of them for a long amount of time. It can be easy to second guess why I 'wasted' my time before realizing that I was looking for something different. Like I said earlier, timing is a slippery thing, and it can glide through our fingers without us realizing that we are questioning it.

Whenever I find myself looking back on how my journey has played out so far, and wondering the whys of it all, the Holy Spirit never fails to remind me that it all happened for a reason. Everything happened for a reason. The timing of my late blooming, the weaknesses I have grown out of and still have yet to face, the strengths that I have not discovered and the ones I want to harness, the moment I found true love and the little ones that highlight my blessings, along with everything else was timed out for a reason. Ecclesiastes 8:6 informs us "For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery." I couldn't skip to the good part, couldn't fast forward through the question marks because those paths are the ones that led me to where I am now. Even though I was impatient, I was not operating on my time schedule, but instead was and still am on God's timing. I looked at the Rain Lily in my hand and it hit me. God does not take shortcuts. He never cuts corners, races through something, scrambles to finish it, takes too long, or wastes His or our time. He winds us down the paths we need to go down in order for everything to time out perfectly in His eyes, even though we may feel like we are taking too long or rushing through it. God never takes shortcuts.

Let's look at the Bible story about Lazarus. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, and they sent a messenger to Jesus in Jerusalem to ask for His help in healing him. John 11:5-7 states that "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, 'Let us go back to Judea.'" Jesus goes to Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were and found out that Lazarus had been buried for four days by the time that He got there. He speaks with both Martha and Mary and asks where the grave of Lazarus is. The story continues and Jesus asks for the stone to be removed from the tomb. Martha warns Jesus about the odor of her dead relative after four days and "Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, 'Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.' When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.' (John 11:40-44)."

I wanted to share this particular Bible story with you because truly it is all about timing. Jesus, when He hears about Lazarus being sick, does not rush out of Jerusalem, but rather waits two days before leaving to go to Bethany. Our earthly concept of timing is difficult to balance, but the Almighty definition of timing is completely different than ours. God does not work on our timing. When He looks at you, He does not consider what your peers are doing, but instead He focuses on crafting you to blossom when He says it is time. When Jesus showed up in Bethany, both Martha and Mary tell Him that if He had been there, their brother would have healed and lived. However, Martha and Mary fall into the same trap as we all do. Wondering about the whys and the ifs of it all. They, just like us, failed to trust in God's timing and wanted to skip through the difficult rainfall, the times when we are broken at the stem, in order to enjoy sucess and prosperity. But Jesus never takes shortcuts. He, instead, used it as an opportunity to showcase His love and power, through raising Lazarus from the dead. Martha and Mary believed in God, and He demonstrated how God is in control of time, in control of nature, in control of all things. It is empowering and inspiring to consider how almighty God's timing works. He turned a tragedy into a miracle through His time. Our God is amazing!

Our Father has it all planned out. He knows when the rain is coming, when we will feel like we are broken off at the stem, and how, through Him, we can bloom through the hard moments, the good moments, and all the ones in between. God had us walk each step so that we can bloom more than once, we can come back time and time again, and we can give glory to Him in the ways He has chosen for us. We are never wasting our time when we live for Christ. We are not rushing into something when the Lord has called us to do it. We can trust in God's perfect plan for us, and Isaiah 40:31 tells us “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Just like my Rain Lily, we are going to bloom at just the right time, be there when someone else needs us, give glory to God with our blossoms, and continue to bloom time and time again as we grow through life with God at the helm and in control of the pace.