His Timing

“Lord, I don’t understand Your timing, but I trust Your will.” Right now, these words are ones that have played over and over again in my mind. With a costly home repair needed, a serious illness of a family member, sickly coughing children, and a young pet that has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, I’ve been a little overwhelmed with the timing of it all. Not to mention, trying to work a job that involves making important decisions about other people’s families.

While running on the treadmill and “working out” all the things going on right now, I became convicted to the fact that I don’t need to understand His timing. I don’t even need to understand His will in all of this. I just need to trust. I need to trust that His timing is far greater than mine anyway, and His will in my life and the lives of those around me has greater depth than what I could ever come up with. I am convinced that my timing would just mess everything up, or perhaps, I would never get anything done or make the immediate decisions that need to be made, if not feeling prompted by the Lord’s timing in all of it.

The photo seen in this post is the front side of a card that my church mailed to me over the weekend. There’s always seems to be little reminders that arrive at just the right time to confirm His presence when traveling through difficult seasons in one’s life. The timing of receiving this card is certainly something I don’t need to question. After all, His timing is perfect.

Some people might say,”Why would God allow all of this to happen (especially at once)?” Sometimes I find myself asking the same thing. I’m may not know why, but I do know that I am not capable of fully understanding the capacity of our Heavenly Father to work out all of the details. I also feel Him resonating through out these experiences in life.

During this rather hectic and difficult time, I feel Him stronger than ever. I hear Him more and more each day. I yearn even greater to complete the tasks He set me on Earth to do. I am not walking with my own strength, I’m running with His.

If you are going through some turmoil in your life with illness, family issues, finances, or all of the above at once, I encourage you to prayerfully silence the doubts and naysayers around you, and focus intently to the one true voice that provides peace and strength to make it through.

Strength Training

I love cycling! I just started a few years ago and thoroughly enjoy it. I have been able to meet an eclectic group of fellow cyclists, make some new friends, see parts of my state I would otherwise over-look, and witness in small ways about my faith in Christ. A lot of issues have been worked on and prayed for while out riding in the country. I really enjoy riding in local charity events and end my “season” with completing a 150 mile ride to bring awareness and raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis.

There are numerous hills dispersed throughout my corner of the state in Missouri. Oh, I love going down them, but climbing back up is a whole other issue. Often, I just want to unclip my shoes, get off the bike, and walk up. But, I don’t (okay…well maybe a few times). Instead, I huff and puff my way up these “Ozarkian” hills.

The bike is not to blame. It doesn’t change. The suffering of the ride really has nothing to do with the bike, but instead, my lack of focus, determination, and training….oh yeah….and those darn hills. I am now realizing that perhaps my cycling journeys represent my walk with Christ.

I’ve found that when being challenged by a major hill that feels more like a mountain, I’ve struggled with the instinct to just keep my focus on the Lord. It can be hard to stay determined to make it up that mountain. I have wanted to do it all on my own and not allow the Lord to help me up it. Then there are those times when life is good and I’m just flying along. I fail to notice or acknowledge sometimes the One who gives me those moments where I am carefree, content, and not having to work very hard.

Like cycling, I think that walking with the Lord takes practice. Let me explain a little further. Before I fully committed myself to the Lord, I did not realize how important it was to stay active in faith. I just assumed that I could be “immobile” and the Lord would take care of it all. I did not pray that often, barely cracked open my bible, and never went to church.

Through the past 12 years since I have surrendered it all to Him, I have learned that being active in my faith requires daily “training”. Prayer, acknowledging His good works in my day-to-day life, trusting Him daily, reading the Word, tithing, being active in church, serving others….the training regiment goes on and on. I do not want to be a lukewarm, out-of-shape Christian.

When I am out on my bike and really feeling every muscle in my legs burn, I start to recite to myself “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

If I look up the road and see what seems like a monster of a hill coming, I recite “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

If nearing the end of a long ride and I am just worn out, I tell myself “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Just like training rides build up my strength and endurance, my daily walk, or run for that matter, with the Lord builds up my strength to face the mountains in life. Christ strengthens, Christ builds up, Christ refines, and Christ declares the victory.