Tag: Bill Lenz

Posted on

Waiting

“Yet, the strength of those who wait with hope in the Lordwill be renewed.

They will soar on wings like eagles.

They will run and won’t become weary.

They will walk and won’t grow tired.”

Isaiah 40:31

How do you handle “waiting?”   Are you a fidgeter?  A snoozer? A pacer?  A snacker?  A complainer? An I’ll-just-do-a-little-work-while-I’m-waiting-er?   Do you analyze the inefficiencies that are causing your wait?  Do you just sit back and watch all the other waiting folks? Do you tell your entire life story to the person waiting next to you?

Life is full of “wait.” It can be tiring, frustrating, and stressful.

Or, it can be transformational.

In the desert, nearly 200,000 people wait.  They wait for justice, for attention, and for their return to their homeland.  It’s been a 40+ year wait.  (Like some other desert refugees who were dreaming of the Promised Land of their future.  Sound familiar?)

Waiting can be exhausting…maddening….discouraging. Isaiah wrote this beautiful description of waiting “with hope in the Lord.”  He describes strength occurring within the wait.

  • Soaring –  the way eagles soar.  They float, effortlessly.  They catch the wind and let it carry them.  They see the things of earth as far smaller than we earth-walkers see them.  Far less significant.  When we catch a glimpse of the soaring eagle, it takes our breath away in it’s power, beauty, strength…defying one of the greatest laws of earth – gravity.
  • Run– and not become weary. Like a long-distance runner.  Marathon winners run like the wind.  Every muscle in top condition.  Finding that pace … that perfect stride where every part is working together in such unison that the speed and rhythm seems to enter into a realm that breaks through the constraints of this earth and enters a freedom unlike anything else of this world.
  • Walk– and not faint. Slow and steady forward movement. It allows for more time to take in the surroundings, enjoy the views.  Walking makes conversation possible, with more time to think….and look….and make ‘going the distance’ more feasible.

My desert family/nation has been one of the greatest living examples I have ever witnessed of the realities of Isaiah’s words.  They had to flee their homeland in fear and horror, by any means possible.  Car, truck, running on foot. . . and eventually walking, traumatized and grieving. They journeyed into their unknown future in the desert.  They lost so much, yet clung to their faith that God was in charge of their lives and future.  As the years passed, they regathered in that impossible desert, establishing temporary homes, schools, a government, while holding onto their identity and culture.

They wait.  For justice to come, for  the world to know, and for God to intervene.  But they do not wait in despair.  They have learned to rise above their tragedy….to look up to the heavenlies and to soar.  They continue to run the long race of life…with grace and determination.  And they walk in faith that God sees, God knows, and that He is the only One truly worthy of their honor.

Posted on

Shelter and Shadows

“Whoever lives under the shelterof the Most High

    will remain in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord,

    “You are my refugeand my fortress,

my God in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2

Shelter…..shadow…..refuge….fortress…..all words that were extremely important needs in the life of David, the Shepherd-King.  He knew what it was like to spend long stretches of time out in the arid, wide-open, unprotected lands, leading his father’s sheep to find good pasture.  He lived the long, lonely days of moving sheep toward better feeding grounds, followed by long, lonely nights of creating enough of a safe place for the skittish sheep to be able to rest.

David was very familiar with living out in the open, without a house or any other structure that would provide safety for himself or his sheep.  No roof, no walls, no door… no sense of safety. Windstorms blew, driving the stinging sands into eyes and skin,  and scaring the sheep which scattered in fear.  Shelterprovides a safe place within its boundaries.  In this dangerous world, He is our immediate Shelter.

Shadows provide relief from the sun.  In a dry land there are not many trees, and any shade is a treasure, breaking the intense heat of the sun.  We all know the great relief we experience when, standing in the sun “cooking”, we step into a shadow.  There is immediate relief in that moment’s shadow.

Shepherd David clarifies that the Holy Shelteris the place we must live…not simply visit or jump in and out of.  It is safe there…immediately. Evil cannot  touch us there.  And withinthat Shelter is the Shadow of God Himself.  It isn’t a “place.”  It is an experiential reality of God’s Presence coming between me and the “heat” that could eventually be my doom. His “Shadow” doesn’t come to me.  I must choose to step into that Shelter of His, and to then experience His Shadow where I find immediate relief, rest,  and the clear evidence of His own Presence wrapping itself around me.

Experiencing His Shadow and Shelter, who could help but clearly acknowledge that He is my Refuge….my safe place from all that intends to destroy me.  And more than refuge,(an immediate, temporary safe place in times of crisis,)  . . . He is my Fortress!   Strong! Impenetrable!  Lasting through the ages.  My Fortressis fully armed, prepared and intent to do battle for me.  And while the battle rages, I am protected and safe within my Mighty Fortress.

Posted on

A Desert, a Boy, and God

“God was with the boy as he grew up.

He lived in the desertand became a skilled archer.”  

Genesis 21:20

Way back near the beginning of the Bible’s history lessons, there was a little boy who was born to a slave woman.  His father loved the boy, but  he eventually had to make a difficult choice which meant the boy would live alone with his mother.  They would live out their lives in a harsh desert.

Many families are “broken families” in the refugee camps in the Sahara.  Due to war, lack of job opportunities, harshness of life, and the realities of survival in refugee realities, there are many children who live with their mothers, but without their fathers. Grandfathers and uncles often step in to help raise the children. 

 Desert life is a world of its own, with values, principles, and training by their families on how to handle life in its harsh realities.  Little boys from the age of 3 are taught to know the night sky. They learn of the constellations and the North Star.  For them, it could be a life-saving education. 

In the vast desert (the same desert that stretches all the way into the lands of many of the Bible’s desert stories), there are only rare landmarks, “roads”, or signs to follow.  The nights, especially, are the most dangerous as untrained travelers become disorientated, lost, and die. 

Knowing the night sky, with the stars giving orientation and direction to endless sands, is critical for survival.  This boy would have had to know well the nighttime Map written in the sky. 

“God was with him as he grew up…”

What a tender statement for this desert boy, without his father.  God Himself stepped into a fatherless son’s life, and wrote him into His Story.  God’s Story continues to be intertwined with that desert boy’s story . . . after all this time. 

Posted on

By a Desert Spring

“The Messenger of the Lord found her

 by a spring in the desert,

 the spring on the way to Shur.”  

Genesis 16:7

She was a slave.  Her family, home, and former life was far, far away…in another country.  She was pregnant, mistreated by the wife of the father of her child, and now utterly alone in this harsh desert.  No shelter.  No man to protect her from the many, many dangers in the desert.  A woman without the protection of a man was doomed.  It would be a slow death, surely.  But most excruciatingly painful of all would be to lose the baby she carried.  She would never see his face or hold him.  There was nothing she could do.

Springs in a desert are well-known to all the people of that region.  It was a matter of life or death to know where to find a spring.  She was there, the only place of any hope for her.  But water alone was not enough to keep her alive.  It would merely prolong death.

Her despair must have been unfathomable.  Her story had been one of being “used”…first as a slave with no rights, taken from her home and family.  She had to learn a new language, new culture, new rules and expectations, with strangers now deciding everything concerning her life.  Everything of her former life was gone.   She had to survive an entirely new life, not by her own choice.  That’s what slaves do.  They are “used.”  Eventually she was “used” in the ultimate way…with her own body and deepest intimate part of her heart.

Now, their lives would end together, she and her unborn, only child. . . alone.

But God saw.  He knew. He loved and cared in a deeply personal way for this young slave woman at the little spring, waiting to die.  He had a Plan.

And for the first of only two times in Bible history, God’s Messenger came to a simple young woman, and called her by name.  He then went on to tell her that she would give birth to a son.  He even described what her child would be like.  And God’s own Messenger named this son she carried, “Ishma-el…which means ‘God hears.’”  Every time she would say her son’s name for the rest of her life, it would be a reminder of the God Who Hears….her!

Then, this foreigner, a slave, a girl, so “unqualified” to be having such a conversation with God’s own Messenger, named Him: “Lahai Roi, meaning: The God Who Watches Over Me.”

When we are in those “desert places” in life, no matter how deeply we are feeling alone, forgotten, rejected, or hopeless, thinking that life is over, God isthere.  The “little spring” to which we cling as our hope slips away is not the end of the story.  God Himself “hears”…it’s Who He Is. And in the most hopeless times in life, we can hold on to Who He Is: “The God Who Watches Over Me,” even in our most desperate, hopeless desert moments.

 

Posted on

All That Night

“All that night

the Lord drove the sea back.”

Exodus 14:21

God’s desert refugees were running for their lives.   Behind them in traumatizing, deadly pursuit was the most powerful army in the world.  Ahead of them was the Sea.  Men, women, children, grandparents, the sick, elderly, newborn and soon-to-be born babies. The terror and chaos had to have been unimaginable.  Death was in hot pursuit behind them . . . no safety nor “home” lay ahead.   Well over a million traumatized slaves. . . now refugees. But there was no refuge for them. Death loomed . . . at their backs and in their faces.  In the darkness, when terror and danger was all around them.

BUT GOD WAS THERE, saying “Go . . .”   Go to your new life . . . your new home . . . your new freedom . . .   I Am here.  I Am making a way for you.  It’s scary, it’s not easy.  One foot in front of the other.    I Am right here, making the Way for you!

 Nighttime seems to hold far more fear.  Darkness surrounds us, and fears grow.  We cannot see.  Our human frailty and vulnerability becomes far more tangible.  We long for the light.

God’s people…His refugees, saw the turbulent sea open before them, and the command came to step into that unimaginable journey in the darkness of night.  There was really no other option…theyhad to go.  

God was there. In the darkness.  He, Who had opened the sea and created the path to the other side, was there.  “All the night” . . . holding the sea back from utterly wiping out the people He had chosen to carry His Story to the world.  He had created the way for them, and He was holding the sea back.  No movie creation of man could begin to depict that scene.  We can only try to imagine it.  As His dearly loved people stepped onto the bottom of the sea, with the waters of that sea towering above them. . . in the darkness of that long, long night.   No words were necessary as He “held the sea back…all that night.”  They just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other….He was doing all the rest.

I know He continues to “drive the sea back” throughout the nights of our souls.  May we continue to put one foot in front of the other on the Path He has made for each of us.

 

 

Posted on

Kings

“Greatness, power, splendor, glory, and majesty are Yours, Lord,

    because everything in heaven and on earth is Yours.

        The kingdom is Yours, Lord,

            and You are honored as head of all things.”

I Chronicles 29:11

For all of his human frailties, David had gotten so many things right.  He was in a time of great transition, handing-off the leadership of the kingdom he had led for so long to his son Solomon.  David had asked his nation to help to build the “Palace of God”….the Temple.   The people had responded with overwhelming generosity.  In front of his people, King David erupted in proclaiming these words to hisKing.  His words were words reserved for greatest honor for worthy kings of nations. For King David to stand before his nation and proclaim these words to His King must have been deeply impacting on all of his people.  They came from his heart. . . from the depth of his soul.

Experiencing a top leader putting things in proper perspective for those he/she leads has profound impact.  To live out that perspective gives substance to the words.  David, the shepherd King,  was a lifelong follower of God.  His God and his nation were profoundly intertwined.  David took that moment in time, when all eyes were on him, to put the focus of his people on his God…the true King.

Human “kings” fail, unfortunately, far more often than they succeed in keeping true perspectives of where God’s place is in the nations they lead.  Top leadership positions are fraught with the perspective struggles….whether top leaders in government, the corporate world, or the faith world.

In my “other world” of the desert, I have seen the effects of a king who has been far more absorbed in building his own personal “kingdom” than in pointing his people to God.  It has devastating effects that can go on for decades…generations.   But I have also seen a top national leader love his people, humbly and secretly blessing widows and desperate situations. Both have profound impact on their people.  

May we daily place our lives and hearts under the perfect sovereignty of our King of all kings. . . especially as leaders.  May they see Godly leaders, especially in their greatest earthly moments, direct all honor and praise to the King under whose perfectleadership we serve.   And may we focus our attention and obedience on our King as we walk this earth.

 

Posted on

It’s About Time

“Before the mountains were born,

before You gave birth to the earth and the world,

You were God.

 You are God from everlasting to everlasting.

Indeed, in Your sight a thousand years are like a single day,

 like yesterday—already past—

 like an hour in the night.”  

Psalm 90:2,4

As a human creature on this earth, it is impossible for me to wrap my mind around this passage. My life is daily dictated by “time.” And the limitations and definitions of “time” that we follow seem to have no similar limitations to God.  He set Time for us, as part of Creation.  He didn’t need it.  We did.  God’s perspective of Time is far beyond what I can grasp.  Yet, my life is deeply enmeshed in earth’s Time.

This was never so clear to me until my life collided with my Desert people.  Nothingran in accordance to my understanding of Time.  Rarely did I see anyone with a wristwatch (yes, this was before cellphones and all the time-related apps in them).  In fact, by my second trip I began taking off my watch while on the last plane.  One less item that only caused frustration! 

After many trips there, I began to realize how much less frustration the people experienced, even though they were living in an extremely harsh and tragic situation.  There was a natural flow to daily life.  They all moved in a very relaxed way through their days.  Life would unfold as it would, without all the frustrations and demands normally placed on other people or themselves.  Over time, I came to see that the things that many of my well thought out plans and agenda were really outside of my control anyway.  Those things that were in God’s Plans would either take place as I had hoped, or would come to pass in the future.  It required much more trust of Him on my part to intentionally put it all into His Hands and be patient.   So many times, whatever He orchestrated  was far better than what I had planned.

How often do we try to hold God to the system of Time by which we live?   We assume that He follows the time limitations and expectations that we follow on this planet.  He does not.  This reality requires far more trust on our part . . . trust of Him and all that He is doing.  We see a small dot of the eternal Picture He is painting.

Once in a while we catch a tiny glimpse, and we are in awe.

Posted on

Desert Song

“Spring up, O well!

Sing about it.”

Numbers 21:17

God’s people had been going through a horrible time!  Slaves of Egypt for hundreds of years, running through the desert andthe Red Sea from Pharoah’s army, with the wall of the sea looming all along their panicked flight. . . then into another desert.   They had been bitten by snakes, struck with plague, learning how to follow leaders who didn’t know where they were going.  Frustration, hunger, running for their lives with children, animals, elderly, and sick people. They’d seen people swallowed up by the earth, being led through the days by a cloud…and the most awesome “nightlight” of fire. All through desert. No convenient natural water sources.  Always on the move, sleeping in temporary shelters, days..weeks…months….eventually 40 years. Including the hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt, this has to be the most horrendous refugee situation in history.

But all the while, God continued to be with them, tolerating their disobedience, bad attitudes, and complaints. They’d lost a lot of ground in Egypt.  He always gave them another chance. . . through miracles He orchestrated. They’d learned so much about Who God Is through that journey.

Now they were on the move again.  God had allowed poisonous snakes to bite His complaining people.  But He also provided a remedy:  Moses’ bronze snake on a pole.  They only had to look at it to live.

Still in the desert, they arrived at a well.  God told Moses, “Gather the people, andI will give them water.” (Num.21:16-18)

And God’s people sang this song,

  “Make your water spring up!

                                                            Sing to the well,

                                                            The well dug by princes

                                                            Dug out by the nobles of the people

                                                            With their scepters and staffs.”

Did those past Princes, using their scepters, know that they were digging a well for God’s refugee People?   Did those Nobles of the past, using their shepherd’s staffs, realize that they were digging a well that would be used by God to bless His people, led by a Shepherd who had been trained to be a Pharoah?  Did they know that God had prepared it long ago to keep them alive?

God knew exactly what was coming in the future.  He knew that His beloved people would pass through that desert place in desperate need of water.  He had provided long before their need passed that way.

We do not know what will come tomorrow in our lives.  Perhaps we would not even what to know.  We do not know how things we do today will affect our tomorrow…or the tomorrow’s of others.  But God knows. . . exactly.  And His Plans of how He will use those human efforts for His Purposes are already reality in His Mind.  Nothing escapes Him.

We can hold tightly to the Truth that He can use anything for our good.  It’s our job to hold tightly to His Hand as He continues to bring into existence the proof of His unfailing Love and Purposes for us.

Unlikely people . . . unlikely circumstances . . . unimagined tragedy may invade our lives.  Yet, whether we truly believe it or not, He’s got this!     And we can join that ancient song of Hope and Truth:   “Spring up, O Well!”

Posted on

Scary Paths

“The Lord Almighty is my strength.

He makes my feet like those of a deer.

He makes me walk on the mountains.

 For the choir director; on stringed instruments.” 

Hab.3:19

There is a lot of desert in the Land that God gave to His people.  There are also mountains.  When I read this verse, I think of a particular oasis in the desert of Israel, the place where David and Saul had their famous shouting match. There is a waterfall where waters from the heights of Jerusalem, having traveled underground, spill out into this mountain oasis…utterly beautiful in its contrast to the surrounding desert.

As our group begins to walk the long path to the waterfall, we move higher and higher. The rocky path narrows and becomes more challenging.  By the time we reach the sparkling waters flowing from Jerusalem gushing out of the rock, its contrast to the rocky desert surroundings are a pure delight. Many walk right into the sparkling, refreshing water.

But along the way, there are often gazelles (small, mountain deer) perched on rocky ledges, watching our human struggles to move along the mountain paths below them.  They easily bound up the side of the cliffs in ways we could never maneuver.  And they watch us struggle, panting as we go, clinging to any rocky outcrop along the way.

Part of the wonder of watching these deer move along the steep cliffs is not only the ease with which they climb, but the grace with which they move.  Effortless.  Sure-footed. Natural.  Fearlessly.  Like a beautiful song.

David, in this desert oasis, watched a similar scene often each day.  He had been running and hiding for his life. Seeing these fleet-footed deer easily maneuvering terrain that could surely lead to a man’s death, David could relate.  Surrounded by the harsh desert and the steep, rocky paths along the exposed mountain wall, David saw himself being strengthened and motivated to stand firmly on his Rock of Salvation.

As I move through the steep, rocky paths of life, I want to have such a confidence in God’s constant Presence and Guidance in my life.  I don’t want to be clinging to a safe spot, white-knuckled and stuck.  I want to move forward gracefully and fluidly, knowing I was made for this Journey, and this Journey was made for me. . . like the deer on the cliffs.  I want my life to be a song that others can join in on the words and melody.  It’s a simple song, sweet and clear, that David gave us.  But its meaning and truth continues through the ages.

Posted on

Walking Before God

“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old,

the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

‘I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me,

and be blameless.’”

Gen. 17:1

Abram had lived for 99 years walking his own path in life.  What an interruption….disruption….this Divine Encounter must have been for him.  And coming from an Entity he knew nothing about, this is one of the most history-making experiences recorded in the Bible.  He was a successful desert man.  A shepherd, with a lot of animals, property and history.

But he had never encountered GOD.  His world was one of idols and all the godless activities that were part of that picture.  Then came his Divine Interruption.  Simple. Clear.  But utterly Life-changing.  History-changing.  History-making.

God makes an extremely brief introduction identifying Himself as El-Shaddai (All-powerful; All-mighty….far surpassing any of the gods in Abram’s world.)  He then establishes the new Path, the new Life, to which He was calling Abram.

No explanation.  No details.  No organizational blueprints.

“Walk before Me…”

Walk:  Put one foot in front of the other.  Don’t run.  Don’t plant yourself in the sand.  Move forward.

Before Me:  God had His Eye on him.  He kept Abram in His Sight.  God didn’t put Abram behind Him, where he might fall unnoticed or get off-track. God was trusting him enough to walk ahead of Him, but His Eye was always on him.  God had Abram’s back.  “Walk”….don’t run.  Don’t stand still.  Move forward, with the confidence that God was there, covering his most vulnerable position – behind him.

Be blameless:   The most challenging, yet most crucial responsibility to which God was calling Abram.  There were no 10 Commandments yet.  Abram was stepping into an utterly unknown experience of walking with God.  Sin and disobedience was a way of life since the time of Adam.  But God was calling him to a life that would have to be far above that of his world. Blame is a very human reality. Abram’s life would have to be one that was blameless in the eyes of the world around him.

May we, the sons and daughters of Abraham, follow God’s clear, simple instruction to him knowing that our Father walks with us.