Stunned Silence (It doesn't happen often...)

Friday of this past week started just like any other workday. Wake up before the alarm clock, turn it off, and wait for 5:00 am to arrive. Get up, shower, dress, blah, blah, blah. This morning I felt compelled to grab a little red book written by Matt Redmon called “The Heart of Worship Files”. In this book there are three short sections called The Theology of Worship. I woke up with these short segments on my mind and wanted to review them so I dug the book out of the chest that it resides in and dropped it into my back pack to take to work.

During a break in the day I pulled the book out and began reading the first section on the Theology of Worship. The first section written by Chris Jack was titled “Reasons for Worship”. He enumerates the biblical reasons for worship. Each of the reasons for worship listed different scriptures. Being only simi-geeky, I looked them up in my “analog” bible… you know, the one that actually has pages and is not on a computer or other portable electronic device. I had read the first few references and had just completed reading Psalms 104.

In the background I heard the new updates sound pipe up from my laptop that displayed a good friend”s tweet. It was a simple prayer request for a proposal that he was about to turn in for a job he really needed to get. So in the moment I decided I would e-mail him a simple little prayer. For some reason while reading Psalms 104, two of the verses really popped out at me. They stated… (vs 27-28)

“These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.”

So I included them in the short prayer that I sent my friend. Sent to encourage him and give him hope that the Lord provides.

So I sent the e-mail and spun around in my chair. Picking up the bible again I re-read those verses. All in that moment, God clubbed me right between the eyes. It stunned me so incredibly that I had to take a very quick deep breath because the one I had was gone. In encouraging my friend I had received an answer to a prayer I had been praying for months now.

My close friends know that I was officially notified in November of last year that I would be laid off (right sized was the term) on January 1, 2009. It was with that notice that the provisioning begun. Within fifteen minutes of being told this lovely news, my lay off date was moved to the end of March. As the days rolled by it was moved to April, then to May, then to the end of June. During this time the job market had been terrible and I had been getting little to no action on my resumes that were out there. However, God was providing.

Over this time I had become increasingly discouraged with things. I had been trying to hide it from my girls, but they saw right through me all the while. I kept on praying that God would give me a peek behind the curtain, give me a little shred of His plan to keep me from getting discouraged. But this had not come. At this nexus the answer to my prayer had become crystal clear in the blink of an eye.

Again, I’m no theologian. I am not smart enough for that. The verses ahead of these two were recounting all the creatures that rely on God for their needs. I remembered that I was a creature also. A creature created by the God who loves me. I’d received my answer. My answer was not a peek into the master plan for my life, but a gently reminder that He is in control. That He in His perfect timing and in His perfect plan will open His hand at just the right time with just the right thing. Then I’ll go gladly gather it up. I will be satisfied with the good thing that He is going to provide.

I’ve been in a season that I can look back upon and see that as in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9…

⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

I’ve been just as the verse above says. He has provided for me and my family and He will continue to do so. The message received was simple. It was “relax my son, I will take care of you.” It is so amazing what happens when we are still before Him. On my ride home I just sat back and drank in the events of the past few hours. In a stunned silence.

Within just a few miles of home the cell phone rings. It was my manager. He asked, “Will you stay on until the end of July?” I said, sure and mentally ran over and picked up that “good thing” that was just provided.

HE had opened HIS hand again.

(As for my friend, his proposal was successful and he got more money that he originally planned on bidding the job for.)

Be lifted higher…