Tuesday, October 2, 2012

An Early Morning

This morning I woke up at 5:40 and couldn't get back to sleep. I tried to doze until about 8:00 when I 'threw in the towel' and got up. It was kind of nice to be up early and not have to rush to a doctor's appointment. Since I have been off work with this back thing, I have fallen into the bad habit of staying up until past midnight and waking up around 11. Usually I will wake up one or two times in the night, take some pills, read some blogs and drift back to sleep.  That makes me sound like a bit of a drug addict, most of the pills I take are ibuprofen or tylenol...and sometimes prescription narcotics...

Ok...back to this morning...it was quite nice to wake up and not have to rush off anywhere. I turned on the radio to hear Radio 2 Morning, something I often miss given my current sleep habits. The very last song of the morning was Of Whom Shall I be Afraid by Jim Byrnes, a blues musician from Vancouver. I really enjoyed this song and it went right along with the story of Gideon I was reading in the Bible. Here is a video of Jim Byrnes with the Sojornors singing the song at a music festival:
Gideon can be found in Judges 6, 7 and 8. The basics of the story of Gideon are pretty well known: little guy--hiding from Israel's enemies--Angel of the Lord appears and calls him a great warrior--asks God to show him a sign that this is true--puts out fleeces for proof--fleeces are wet then dry--he defeats the enemy with God's strength.  The signs that he asks for are sometimes seen as a lack of faith (my question would be: why does he make it to Hebrews 11-the Hall of Faith?).

If you go and read about Gideon, you will see that he quickly looses confidence in himself and in what he thinks he has heard from God--he doesn't lose faith in God. At every point of decision in this story, Gideon looks to God for reassurance. God always comes through. At each turn in the story, God reminds Gideon where his strength is. Gideon doesn't wallow in self doubt, he acts on what God tells him is true. Gideon places his hope and trust in God.

God knows that people need reassurance. He knows that we need to ask and see him move; that we need to listen and hear his voice. That is why he gives us things along the way. If you are hoping in him for something very big that he hasn't given you yet then he has probably shown you other, smaller things that confirm that promise or other ones that he has made to you. God doesn't leave us dangling, not in pain, not in waiting, not in loneliness or disappointment. God always moves and will show us how he is moving if we ask.  This is one of the reasons Jim Byrnes's song is so true!

1 comment:

  1. Nicely captured Carla :) I like when you get up at 5:40, too! Maybe not every morning though... even Étienne doesn't get up that early ;)

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