Well, how interesting, because what God had for me to find here in the wee hours was a message via Oswald and Biddy Chambers' life, but directly related to my own current life -- which is currently undergoing an overhaul, but the overhaul has no clear shape yet. I worded that judiciously, but I guess you can read somewhat between the lines.
I've re-posted a slightly revised version of the post below.
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(original post from March 13, 2014)
Once again, God has been using Oswald and Biddy Chambers' lives to speak to my will and heart. This most recent word He had for me was put on a delayed-release setting. Something I read before bed last night touched me, but the personal application didn't sink in until this morning. When it did hit, it astonished and humbled me. Oswald Chambers left England in October 1915 to begin work with the Y.M.C.A. in Egypt. His wife and daughter had been given special permission to go as well, but only because the camp was not directly in a war zone. They didn't accompany him right away, however, and we only really learn the main reason a bit later in the chapter: Funds were not available yet. In my lingo, that would be "They couldn't afford the tickets yet," but "can't afford" was not part of Oswald and Biddy's way of looking at the world. They had to wait for the right timing for the voyage, since it was wartime and the situation was often too risky. One morning, after a particularly faith-lifting time with the Lord, Oswald wrote to tell Biddy to come. She arrived with little Kathleen at Christmas-time. Immediately afterwards, the ruling came down that women and children would no longer be allowed entry to the region. What exquisite timing. What an amazing God we have. I went to bed shortly after reading this. This morning, as I was standing in my kitchen making cream of wheat, the other shoe dropped. I began thinking about the various times when the Lord has sustained me on cream of wheat, potatoes, flour, eggs, rice, and a few other staples; at times I ate like a queen, on just these staples. I started thinking of some of the other miracles of provision the Lord has sent me. Many of them have been almost invisible, such as paycheques stretching beyond their value; some have been dramatic; many have been impossible to explain. The Lord has sustained me. He got me through a terrifying nightmare a while back, and has since been rebuilding my life. I am still in that land of "can't afford" that Oswald and Biddy would call by an entirely different name, but my God has been absolutely amazing to me. I left breakfast waiting and decided to "build Him an altar" right then and there, to acknowledge what He has done for me. What does this have to do with Biddy and Oswald? Well, you see, they didn't have funding yet for the ship fares to Egypt for the whole family, so Oswald went ahead by himself and waited for the Lord's timing. "We don't have the funds yet to go together as a family, so we'll wait upon the Lord and watch for His timing." Can you imagine this happening in our era? Our mindset tends to be that we pray and tell the Lord what needs to happen; we expect Him to open up the skies for us. Here was a saint who walked more closely with the Lord than most have done, yet he lived in joyful simplicity, eagerly confident that the Lord would be utterly true to His promises. The main lesson for me in this is that a truly surrendered disciple lives as though the Lord's sovereignty is a concrete reality. In which case, what difference should it be to me when (or how, or really even whether) the Lord answers what I've asked, if He is sovereign? He has the whole scope of my life in His hands. Every delay or snag, every demonstration of miraculous timing or providence -- it's all one big picture. Lord, my voyage is in Your hands. Please give me the sort of childlike faith, joy, and wonder my brother Oswald had -- refusing to worry, rejoicing to watch You work out the details of life, and delighting in the scenery along the way. |