Arky Arky

Waiting. Building. Waiting. Noah developed patience during the process. Even after the "big event", after the storm broke there was  more waiting. Consider Genesis 7.24 “And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.” In Genesis 8.3-4 we read the following:  "and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated,

and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of  Ararat." So, the rain stopped. Things were drying up. Noah and his family were still on the boat. Later in the chapter; “And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.” (Genesis 8:5 ESV) Now we're making progress! Landmarks are emerging. Hope springs eternal in the human breast...Noah and his family? Still on the boat.

• So he waits Forty days and starts to send out birds to reconnoiter the environment...A raven, a dove. The dove returns...time passes. Sends the dove out again and she brings a souvenir. One last release, she does not come back.  Noah and the fam? Still on the boat. 
• “Genesis 8:13   In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. Genesis 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.” 
  
  

My point? Glad you asked. Patience is not easy. It is especially hard during pandemics and floods. We are experiencing new and different challenges and they are not easy to navigate. They can be scary. The end-game is not always evident. Keep this in mind; God was with Noah and his family on that boat. 

Pace

“making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:16 ESV)

I have not blogged in a while. It would be an excuse to say I’ve had no time. It would also be a little silly. We have all been gifted extra time this spring we just have not understood our circumstances in that fashion. Why? The extreme change and difference in our recent circumstances has blinded us to the potential value our forced embargo from social commerce.
Time. The time is there because our pace has been forcibly changed.

God has provided a global and  virtually universal change of pace. Each one of us has to determine whether we have invested the time well or squandered it. We have been schooled in the personal application of the scripture at the head of this post. We have been given an unprecedented opportunity to redeem, make the best of, invest, and leverage the precious resource of time.

So we’ve all been given the gift of revisioning what those 24 clicks on the clock mean. We have been forced into a pace that allows for reflection, review, revision, and reclaiming the non-renewable resource which God gives us all in equal measure.  Congratulations. You have been given a wonderful gift. How shall you choose to use it?