When What You Want Isn't What You Need

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

There’s a worship song we sing pretty regularly at Encounter that I struggle with at times. Called “Always,” it includes these words:

Oh, my God, He will not delay  

My refuge and strength always 

I will not fear, His promise is true 

My God will come through always, always

One Sunday after singing it, I remarked to a friend that I wasn’t sure I bought it. At that point in my life, it seemed as though God was either moving really, really slowly, or perhaps not at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe God was there, but it was difficult to see how and where he was working. When we’re in a layover season in life, a time of uncertainty, disappointment, loss, heartbreak, change, or any number of other things that seem to keep us from moving from one place to the next, it can feel like “He will not delay” is a bit of a lie.

Photo Credit: Flickr User netcfrance, Creative Commons

In Numbers 11, we find the Israelites at the very beginning of a forty-year layover. When the people start complaining about the lack of a diverse diet within the first few weeks, Moses knows he’s in for a long, difficult time as their leader. Instead of sending fruit baskets and pizza and ice cream to alleviate the grumbling though, God gives Moses...a committee. It was likely not the answer Moses had been hoping for. Our natural reaction to a layover is to ask God to get us out of it, and that seems to have been Moses’ hope as well.  Yet, God’s reason for sending a committee is an important one. In verse 17 he tells Moses:

I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Instead of making Moses bear the weight of an entire community’s layover experience on his own, God gave him people to share it with. The Bible doesn’t tell us what the leaders prophesied about a few verses later, but I doubt it was all the same message given in the exact same words. And while we don’t get filled in on what Moses was thinking and feeling as this happened, I hope he was able to appreciate what God was doing by surrounding him with people. During a layover it’s tempting to ask God to get us out of it, but what if instead our question was, What does God have for me in this layover? And what if sometimes his answer is a committee?

If God gives us a committee, it can be difficult to let other people into complicated, messy spaces with us. We might feel like they’ll judge or blame us for being where we are, or offer words meant to help but that instead bring hurt. Those are the unpleasant sides of dealing with other humans, because nothing will ever go completely smoothly in any relationship. But we shouldn’t let fear hold us back from reaching out to the people who have proven themselves trustworthy. God put them in our lives for a reason. Having a committee didn’t fix all of Moses’ problems--it didn’t remove them from the desert or immediately make meat appear--it was, though, a tangible reminder from God that Moses was not alone in his problem. When we are in a layover, or when we are sitting with other people in their layover, presence may be all the solution we will get or are able to offer.

At times though, we have the opportunity to see layover circumstances in a different way than the people who are in the midst of them. I don’t remember my friend’s exact response to my lament that God seemed to be delaying, but it revolved around the idea that maybe God’s definition of “will not delay” is different than my own. For a God who is bigger than my linear, human understanding of time, “not delaying” could be a week from now, two years from now, or not in my lifetime at all. It wasn’t the reminder I wanted at that time, but it was the one I needed. If we let it, good, healthy, Christ-like community can function for us this way--helping us see what we may not be able to on our own and reminding us that God is who he says he is and he will do what he says he will. What we want from a layover isn’t always the same as what we need.


[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]