It seems that for all the waiting we've been doing over these last few years we had a rather non-eventful climax. By all means I'm not saying that my father having a liver transplant two weeks ago was not dramatic mind you. It just seems that we've had more drama along the way than when we were most expecting it. Funny how God works. We thought all along that we were ready any time for the call to come saying, "We think we've got a match. Get down here ASAP." We thought we were ready the day we heard that we would definitely need a transplant for Dad to live much less function well. We knew we were ready when we had to spend the Super Bowl in the hospital a couple of years ago. I mean seriously. If we have to watch Baltimore whoop up on New York from a confetti and cray-pappered hospital room we could at least get something better than a Giants loss for our money! We knew that when Dad was seeing little metal men on the walls of his room two years ago and thinking that the hospital had convinced me to have him done away with—we knew all we needed was a new liver. That would clear up the Beautiful Mind syndrome.
We learned a lot about hospital time during the wait. I, for one, never equated it with God's timing of course because God wanted what was best for us and the hospital system certainly wasn't giving us what was best. I really can't put a specific instance on the table as the mile marker for realizing that we really were on God's time. I can't say when we started seeing that what we thought to be the best for us might not have necessarily been God's best for us. Learning man's chief end is a part of the journey. To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever is not some light bulb experience. There's no capstone. There's no arrival. There's the ordinary, the simple, the stead fast.
He's an on time God because His timing is perfect. He weaves so many facets to make the tapestry of life, and there’s no way in our subjective-one-track-mind kind of being that we could even think to bring all the different people, plans, and opportunities together to fulfill His will to the glory of His name. While God wove times and circumstances He was simultaneously teaching us that the habits of today are the reactions of tomorrow. We were looking and waiting for the big day, which for us was a transplant. We knew that it wasn't a good idea to put our lives on hold until that day because we knew it could be a year or two. But to live in future hopes we often miss the small graces of the day to day.
In I Peter, the apostle is addressing a group of believers who have had quite a time in life with trials, persecution, and the like. We get the idea that Peter is commending the people for their faith but that he's also giving them a helpful reminder that faith is under girded by habitual consistency—by living life deliberately. Be self-controlled and sober-minded (1 Peter 4:7). Love one another (4:8). Show hospitality and do not grumble (4:9). Use you gifts—whether of service or of speech—"in order that in every thing God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (4:10-11). To those elect exiles of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, to those of us whom Peter would call the stewards of God's grace he gives the reminder that the mountain top and the valley experiences are rarely as life changing as we give them credit. How we live life daily—when we have the time or make the time to think through why we do what we do—determines how we'll respond in the moments of crisis or joy. In those moments when there's no time to think and our minds are crowed by one extreme emotion or another .
There have been so many faithful people surrounding my family these last few years. I say faithful because I've seen their reflexes. They see a need and they respond not out of duty but out of habit. And with the habit is a sense of gratitude that they could serve in the Name of the One who has been so gracious in their own lives. One of my mentors painted a picture of grace for me before I ever knew what the word meant. "Grace can never be compensated, but as we become vessels of His grace the kingdom is served". That sums it up. God has not called us to a duty. There is no called in debt to be repaid by practicing the golden rule. Rather the stewards of God's grace are called to a lifestyle of living deliberately, with a purpose, acting out beliefs, on a daily basis. So that one day—one big day—when the ripple affects of the fall threaten to wash us ashore we'll already be grounded
It's a process. It's a journey. And it’s grace that we need not travel alone.