What Are You Waiting For?

When I started coaching high school girls volleyball I had no idea how much I would use my psychology education. Volleyball in general, and with teenage girls in particular, is a very mental game. The same team that can be unstoppable in one game can go to looking like they have never seen a volleyball in an instant. There are also matches where everyone plays timid and and cautious. As anyone that has played for me for any length of time can attest, one of the things I say in times like that is, "Stop waiting for someone else to make a play. You have to be the one to make things happen." As Christians I think we can fall into a similar trap. We look around at all of the things that are going on around us. We see all of the ick that is happening and we pray that God would do something. We wait for some divine intervention or someone else to step up and take on the task. We keep waiting for someone else to act and to tell us what to do. When God doesn't send someone or do something we shake our heads and wonder why He hasn't done anything. I think God's message would be the same that I give my players, "Stop waiting for someone else!" We need to stop waiting for someone else to act in our stead. When you see things that need fixing, instead of waiting for someone else to do something, get to work. Perhaps, just like Esther, you were made for such a time like this. Matthew West released a song about a decade ago called Do Something. Take a few moments to check it out.

I Wish You Could See

I coach middle school and high school girls volleyball and I have for many years now. One of the things I tell my young charges is that when I watch them play I see two versions of them. I see the young, just learning the game player and the player that they can become. I tell them this so they know that when I am pushing them it isn't because I am mad at them or don't like them, it is because I see what they can become and I am trying to get them to the point. I am also a middle school and high school math teacher and I treat my students the same way. I see the people they can become and I push them as hard as I can in that direction. Some fight it and others flourish under it. This has really hit home in the last few years when I have had students that have faced issues that no teenager/pre-teen should ever have to face and are dealing with real world things that adults would crumble under. These struggles have manifested themselves in classroom struggles that allowed them to get overlooked and just passed along. I keep gently pushing and nudging them toward the future that I know they can have if they could just see themselves like I see them. I thought that was what I wanted to write about, but I was having trouble forming it into something "spiritual" as that is apparently what this space has come to be. I have had this title for months. I have had the parts you have already read for nearly as long, but I haven't had any idea what to do with it. Then I realized that I am them. I am the person floundering and thinking that I will never get this. I will never be good at this. I will never be... fill in the blank. I keep saying those things and God is looking at me saying, "I wish you could see you the way I see you. "When we look at ourselves we see the grimy, sinful person we are while God sees His child made in His image that was made for a purpose. He sees the purpose that we not only can, but will, fulfill. God is looking at you saying the same thing, "If you could only see..." When you feel God pushing outside of your comfort zone, it isn't because He is mad at you, it is because He sees what you will be, not what you are.

Surely Goodness and Mercy 

      "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Even people that don't know scripture probably know that one. The 23rd Psalm is probably one of the most quoted scriptures. Students memorize it in Sunday school. It is read at funerals. It is used to comfort people facing difficult times. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (v4) Who can't find comfort in those words? "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies: thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." (v5) Again, comfort and peace in difficult times. 

      You have heard everything you can about this Psalm. You have probably learned about shepherds and the imagery that goes with that. You have heard about The Good Shepherd and all that means, have you paid attention to all of it? The psalms are full from beginning to end and you have to look at everything they contain. We can walk boldly into the valley of the shadow of death with the confidence that God's rod and staff will be there to comfort us. Wait, comfort us, not protect us? "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life..."(v6) What? Follow me? No, I need your goodness to go before me. God's goodness and mercy are to follow us wherever we go, not go before us. 

     We should leave behind goodness and mercy where we go, it doesn't go before us. Don't wait for God's goodness to go before, take it with you. Take it to places where it isn't. God's rod and staff will be there to protect you and comfort you, but you need to walk though the valley as goodness and mercy follow you.