Waiting on the Lord

When my son was in Marine Boot Camp at Parris Island, SC, he told me that the only scripture he heard preached on included this verse:

"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. The will walk and not faint."  [Isaiah 40:31]

At the time he said he had never heard of that verse.  But while we were traveling around and often moving when we were on active duty in the US Air Force when our kids were little, a friend I had met in Officer Training School had given me a card about 4" by 8" with sticky things on the back and I had put it up on the wall in our hallway.

After the first move the stickiness was no longer working, so I always put it on an eye-level shelf in the medicine cabinet of a bathroom.  Tom probably had not really noticed it except when we moved  into a new house and I showed it both to him and to his sister, Krista.

Tom said that at Boot Camp that verse had come to be a help in surviving and enduring all that he went through.  By the time he left for boot camp, he and a bunch of his high school buddies had been hanging around with some Marine recruiters for around a year.  They had worked out and run with them and generally found out from them what it might be like to be a US Marine.

But nothing anyone tells you can compare to the experience, and I was a bit concerned when I brought Tom to the Recruiting Station the day he left for Boot Camp.  As he was walking me to the car, he told me that he was determined to do so well that he would be an honor grad at Boot Camp. 

I prayed for him, hoping with all my heart that he would not be disappointed.

Honor grads are the best out of around 60 recruits.  I told him I knew he would be and prayed for him at the same time.

Four of his buddies from high school enlisted within the same six month period that Tom did.  I'm so proud of all of them.

And indeed Tom was an honor grad.  The graduation parade passed before him and five others, while many of our family members watched.  Krista and I sat under a canopy in the bleachers at the center of the parade ground with the other guests of honor, Marine generals and Navy admirals

Are you living with any kind of uncertainty or difficulty?

Wait on the Lord. He will renew your strength.

Is someone you love seriously ill or close to death?.

Wait on the Lord.  He will help you through it.

Are you filled with doubts, cares, worries and fears?

Wait on the Lord.  He will assure you, comfort you and deliver you from fear.

Isaiah 40

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust. Lebanon would not provide fuel enough, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol? —A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. As a gift one chooses mulberry wood—wood that will not rot— then seeks out a skilled artisan to set up an image that will not topple. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for 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. (http://bible.oremus.org/)



Kathleen Ware Harris  © 2013
kwharris777@gmail.com

Waterfalls

I remember what it was like to visit Niagara Falls for the first time with my parents and my sister, Jenny, when I was a teenager.  Feeling a quiet thrill as we stood and watched that powerful force of nature in action, I heard the roar of millions and millions of gallons of water tumbling over the cliff and was immersed in the drenching moisture that rushed into the air and joined the suspended perpetual energized dampness hovering above the river. 

  

If you haven't ever been to Niagara Falls, it's worth the trip.

What was surprising to me, though, was something that happened last November.  My two-year-old grandson, Jude, knew a waterfall when he saw the photo above, even though it was behind all the icons on my desk top.  (I was using it as my desktop wallpaper.)

As much as I was surprised that Jude knew the photo was of a waterfall, I was also delighted.

Little kids learn things at an amazing rates. And what they pick up, and how they interact with what they learn can be so amazing to witness.

What a joy see how each child's personality develops!

I loved watching my little cousins grow up even when I was a child.  They lived a few houses down on our block on the far south side of Chicago. 

Also, from when I was ten years old through most of my teen years, I watched the our neighbors' three sons grow up.  The oldest was two when they moved next door to us and his younger brother was on the way to be born.  Two years later they welcomed their youngest brother.  How lovely to discover that each boy's personality was very unique from their earliest days on earth. 

And while I was carrying my children before they were born, it seemed that my both my daughter and my son were individuals in distinct ways even from the time they were in the womb. 

How interesting it was day by day to see how quickly my children learned and developed!  Between the ages of about eight months old and three years old, they each learned so much.  Their interactions with everyone they encountered revealed their budding personalities.

And in the past fifteen years I have been blessed to watch my grandchildren grow up, too.  There are more and more blessings to be thankful for as time flows by me.  

Nevertheless, the older I get the faster time seems to rush by me.  Lately it seems like the time allotted to me is slipping away as quickly as the water that rushes over the cliffs on the Niagara River.

That reminds me of the saying that you can never step into the same river twice.  The first time I heard that, I had an immediate negative reaction to the idea.  I mean look at a map.  All the rivers are clearly marked.  Why would anyone say such a thing? 

However, over the years I came to understand the concept better.  And I think within the idea is a metaphor that can describe the flow of our lives, too. 

Please let me explain that by describing some memories I have.

As I have told you before, and as you may know because you grew up with me, I grew up in Chicago until I was eight years old. After that, until I left for university, I lived out in the country in Lake County that's set in Illinois' northeast corner. 

There are beautiful rivers that crisscross Illinois.  Some of my earliest memories and dreams are infused with the sound of channel bells and fog horns because we lived close to a big bend of the hard-working Little Calumet River.  Strings of barges of coal were pulled up it from the Port of Chicago on Lake Michigan to be used to stoke the fires of a big steel mill across the river.  That was my home knowledge of a river.  We encountered others in our day to day lives.

Often when our family went to downtown Chicago we crossed the Chicago River by foot or in the car.  That's the river that Chicagoans are pleased to turn a very strange and bright shade of green on St. Patrick's Day.  Instead of flowing into Lake Michigan as is did from time immemorial, the river's direction was reversed in 1900. 

Clever engineers designed and had built a system of locks so that the pollution from industries along the river would not flow into Lake Michigan, the source for fresh water not only for Chicago, but for all of the cities and towns on that majestic interior sea.

The first permanent settlement of Europeans in the area was Fort Dearborn, at the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. 

There are brass lines set into the sidewalk on North Michigan Avenue as you approach the towers of the bridge near the Wrigley Building.  The lines mark the perimeter log walls of the fort.  Even when we were very small children, our father always pointed them out and proudly told my brother, my sister and me the history of our city. 

But I couldn't very well imagine how a wooden fort had looked when it existed there.  Later, when I was a school child, our teachers took us on field trips to the Chicago Historical Society Museum, and my imagination was aided by the wonderful dioramas depicting each significant era or event such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

When we moved forty-five miles northwest of Chicago to Lake County, the main rivers we knew were the Fox and the Des Plaines that both, which with their tributaries flow south into the Illinois River. 

In that land of gently rolling hills and lakes in the northeast corner of the state, even the water of the little spring-fed lake we lived on at times overflowed the dam, or was allowed to escape.  The water wended its way through marshy fields, and eventually flowed into the Fox River about three or four miles away.

We came to love living on a lake and those of you who know what it is like to watch the changes light, wind, rain and other forces of nature make on water understand. 

Watching rivers flow by is another kind of gentle joy. 

But I must get back to that idea that you can never step into the same river twice.  Here's another set of river memories to help us along the stream:

The first time I saw the Mississippi was when we crossed the Big Muddy not far from Galena, Illinois to visit Dubuque, Iowa.  On one of our family's lovely day trips we just headed straight west one fine spring Saturday morning.  Our Dad is a Civil War buff and one goal of the day was to visit the home of General Ulysses S. Grant in Galena.  That was interesting, but seeing the Mississippi for the first time was fascinating.

Because I saw the wide expanse of roiling turbulence for the first time in the spring, though, and because I still had the ideas that rivers always pretty much looked the same, I was fooled into thinking that the Mississippi always looked full and gorged with fast-moving water. 

I was wrong.

Over the years I crossed the Mississippi on highway and railroad bridges up and down the area along the borders of Illinois and Missouri; of Illinois and Iowa; and of Minnesota and Wisconsin.   

I have seen the Father of All Waters' muddy basin exposed with only trickles of rivulets making their way south.  At those times, there were river boats, row boats and speedboats sitting askew on the bare waterless edges.  Piers looked ridiculous suspended high above the muddiness in mid-air.  There were other times, too.

Twice on trains I traversed the truly mighty waters at flood stage.  In 1993 after the "Hundred Years Flood," the railroad bridge at Burlington, Iowa had only been re-opened for a few days when the train made its way east.  Even though the river was obediently returning to the confines of the banks and levees marking calmer times, the waters still roiled and swelled.  They seemed still sassy and unruly having greedily soaked up and demolished so many houses and towns, so much farm land.

So, yeah . . . in one way I don't think you can step into the same river twice.

And that becomes a metaphor for the flow of our lives, maybe, when you realize that there are times when the emotions from experiences and relationships overwhelm us.  There also may be times of isolation and emotional famine when our life force is stunted or blocked.

When have you felt the fullness of joy, well-earned pride, loving feelings of encounters with family and friends? 

What do you do when you feel blocked . . . barren, uncreative, fruitless?

What is the source of the flow of energy of your life and spirit?

When he met the woman of Sychar at the Samaritan well, Jesus told her that springs of living water would flow inside her.  On one level He was telling her that her body would be able to sustain life in the future even though she had been barren and had been set aside by many husbands because she had not given them children

But he was also telling her that if she asked, He would give her the essence of true life, the sustenance of the Holy Spirit, symbolized by living water.  Nurtured by this life-giving spiritual essential, she would have a new kind of life.  Living would be more than just existence.  Her time on earth would be filled with vibrant, exciting, energizing vivacity.  That new abundant life would be the beginning of life-forever in the fullness of love. 

The woman not only believed Jesus, she ran to tell everyone she knew.  They invited the Lord to be with them, and received his offer of living water, too.

There is much more to the story, of course.  But this is what I am wondering:  Have you taken Jesus up on that offer to receive living water and the fullness of a life lived in the energy and sustenance of love?

Do you know what it is like to live in relationship with joy?  

  

If not, will you invite Jesus to join you and talk to Him about his offer?  Will you listen and entertain the idea?    

  

Please do. 

  

"Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.'" [John 4:13-15 (NRSV)]    

I'm hoping you have a joy-filled day.

As ever, in Christ -- Kathy   

  

P.S.  If you are interested in seeing more about some of the places I mentioned, you can try these websites:

  

Reversing the Chicago River 

www.lib.niu.edu/2001/ihy010452.html

     

Chicago History

www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org

  

The Chicago Historical Society

http://chicagohistory.org/

Maps Of Illinois Rivers

http://www.ifishillinois.org/reports/fishreportselect.html

A Mississippi River Map  

http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/illinois/illinois-river-map.html

The Source for the Scripture Reference

http://bible.oremus.org/    

 


Kathleen Ware Harris  © 2013
kwharris777@gmail.com