On the front end it (Sabbath) hurts. Leaving my to-do lists alone. Trusting the universe will continue its forward motion without my intervention. Demonstrating that it is God who sustains me and not my own efforts. Sabbath is like the scary free fall of faith, in microcosm. And it is good for our hearts to practice. It gets easier.

Remembering is an active, muscular endeavor for us. Remembering God's past acts of love and mercy fuels our lagging faith in the present moment, and it reverses despair.

Sabbath still matters and we need the challenge it offers against impatience and idolatry. We need the practiced dependence it requires. And we need rest! We need God! And most of the time we are moving too fast to answer his call to be with him. This is the silver lining of the Sabbath cloud...the profound security of his presence...stopping long enough to remember how much he loves us. These help us to wait in larger ways.

Assuming that what we hear does not contradict the Scriptures, this is how we learn to hear the Lord, by doing what we think we hear then seeing what happens. It gets easier every time.

The Israelites in the desert found that hoarded manna rotted. They were permitted no bank accounts and no insurance policies. God is enough. He will be tomorrow who he was today. Later, through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2:13) God chastises Israel for digging cisterns next to streams of living water, hedging their bets just in case God forgets to be God...or neglects to be good. God is enough. Will he not be tomorrow who he has been today?

Where do people...and why do people...have to wait, and what tends to happen when they do? So far, I have one observation to offer. It seems that waiting is a crucible. It tests us. It's when God's people have to wait that they get in trouble. The alternative to waiting for God is idolatry.

Waiting accentuates our helplessness, ant that is what God seems committed to revealing. Only when we know ourselves to be helpless do we fully experience his grace and glory. We have to wait for it.

What single-minded, purposeful, compassionate obedience did it take for Jesus to walk through this world completely unrecognized for who he truly was? Even those dearest and closest to him did not grasp it while he lived.

All of us, some frequently, feel undervalued and unseen. Yet, our deepest pains are lessened in that moment of recognition that Jesus...gets it. That his own feet have walked through this very pain. May we stretch to be like him, and live for his accolade alone, his face only before us. For soon, as Scripture promises, we will be face to face." from "The Bare Branch" p.43

The author of Hebrews says what kept him (Jesus) going was "the joy set before him" (Hebrews 12:2). The joy of accomplishing what had been lovingly planned from the beginning...the joy of pleasing his Father. And you. Your face was before him. He was willing to bear the terrible irony of obscurity to accomplish the plan, to please his Father, and to win you.