Be still and know...

Consider the egg. No…consider the Mama bird. She spends days flying to and fro, choosing the perfect location to build her nest, then gathering sticks and long blades of grass and such, she works tirelessly building a place in which to lay and incubate her eggs. Then…she sits…for weeks. She just sits and waits. The egg, from the time it is laid until the baby bird begins to peck at the shell to make its escape, is unchanged. There is “no visible evidence of progress.” As my friend Elisabeth Elliot pointed out in her daily devotion a couple of days ago.

She goes on to say “Things are apparently at a standstill. But the bird sits quietly, knowing that in the stillness something vital is going on, and in the proper time it will be shown.”

The bird sits quietly, knowing…
That is what we are called to do. As the Lord calls us to serve or to change or to address matters of discipline, we want to see immediate results. We want to lay the egg and right then see it wobble and hear the pecking and then see it hatch. But we can’t. As the days and weeks go by, all we can do is all we are called to do and trust God to bring about His desired result in the proper time. If the Mama bird doesn’t do what she is called to do, that is sit and keep them warm, the baby birds won’t have what they need to grow and then hatch. The eggs will die and then be pushed out of the nest.

What is it God is calling you to? Has he convicted you of an area of sin, urged you to incorporate some new matter of discipline into your routine? Whatever the call, our response must be an unequivocal “yes”…and then we must do two things:

1. Set about doing what it is He has called us to do, and

2. Wait on Him for the result…no matter how often we fail how long it takes or how much things continue to look or feel or seem the same.

As Elisabeth Elliot reminds us “something vital IS going on” in the unseen and we must rest in that knowledge and trust the one who “works all things together for the good” even when it looks like there isn’t much work going on. Especially then.

The righteous shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17) For who hopes for what he sees? (Romans 8:24)