Red Light! Green Light!

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD."  Psalm 37:23

 

When I was a child, I often played an outdoor game called “Red Light! Green Light!” The child designated as “it” played the part of a stoplight, forcing all other children to freeze on command.

Yes. I know. Playing a stoplight does not rank high on a child’s list of things to do today, but in a day when children actively entertained themselves rather than passively expecting to be entertained, being a stoplight was a highly desirable position.

Once someone was designated as “it,” everyone else lined up about twenty feet away. “It” would then turn his back to the others and call out, “Green light!” As the children ran toward him, he suddenly shouted out “Red light!” and quickly turned around. Anyone “it” caught moving would have to go back to the starting line. Whenever someone reached and tagged the human stoplight, that person would then get to be “it.”

As I reflect on this game, I am saddened to think of how often God still sees me caught up in this same childish thinking―still on a quest to be “it.” As an adult, this can only be viewed as a less than favorable position. If someone says, “She thinks she’s it,” I certainly don’t want to be the focus of their statement!

Psalm 37 tells us, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” And in the same chapter, we are told, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”

Life is full of stops and goes. I often look at the stops in my life as being negative and the goes as being positive, but George Müller, a nineteenth-century British evangelist, stated, “The stops of a good man as well as his steps are ordered by the Lord.”

Nowhere in God’s Word is this truth more evident than when God led his children through the wilderness with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. “Whenever the cloud was lifted up above the tent, the Israelites would set out; at the place where the cloud stopped, there the Israelites camped” (Numbers 9:17, HCSB). Both the stops and the starts were orchestrated by the Lord. For the Israelites, God was It, with a capital I, and they were to walk accordingly. No running ahead when God turned his back.

What about me today? What about you? Have you been running ahead of God lately? Every time we move outside of God’s direction, every time we desire to be “it,” we run the risk of being sent back to the starting line. Neither having to start over, nor being the stoplight is a highly desirable position. Proceed with caution!

Lord, help me to acknowledge you as It with a capital I, and to walk accordingly. Amen

“Since we live by the Spirit,

let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25)

 



Go With the Flow

These leaves finally let go of the lofty position they had held for so long, only to be carried by the wind and brought to rest in deep waters. Where the waters will carry them is still a mystery, but one thing is sure; they served their purpose along the way....They brightened up my day!

 

It was only in the letting go . . . .

 

 

that their beauty flowed from among the masses!

 

"There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth....

A right time to hold on and another to let go...."

Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 6 (The Message)

 

 

Fit for a King

A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord;

make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:3 (NIV)

Jackhammers, roadblocks, detours, and major traffic jams are pretty much the norm as our city’s main thoroughfare undergoes massive reconstruction. Soon its irregular pavement, potholes, and unmarked lanes will be transformed into one of America’s leading corridors, welcoming travelers from the Great Lakes of Michigan to the eastern Carolina shores.

Those of us who must maneuver our way daily through this seemingly endless obstacle course will welcome the day we can move from point A to point B unhindered by such “progress.” Roadways, whether accommodating the gleaming chariots of old or the world’s latest hybrid automobiles, have always been in a constant state of repair.

Isaiah 40:3 points toward John the Baptist as the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”  

 In John’s day, before the arrival of a king into a village or city, the residents not only began sprucing up the market square, but they set out to prepare the roadway for his coming. Great measures were taken to ensure the removal of any large boulders or obstacles that would hinder the king’s entrance into the city. On the day of his arrival, the city would be truly fit for a king.

Today, preparing the way can be compared to rolling out the red carpet for our nation’s celebrities or foreign diplomats. Think of the immense renovation process in a city prior to hosting a major event such as the Olympic Games. Imagine the embarrassment of the people of the city if, upon the Olympians’ arrival, the venues were still incomplete.

Some days our lives and circumstances resemble a broken concrete thoroughfare or dusty wilderness highway as unconfessed sin leaves our hearts emotionally devastated and in need of repair. Potholes, roadblocks, and detours along poorly marked wilderness paths can leave us circling the same mountain time and again with no clear off-ramp in sight. How do we exit this roundabout? How do we restore the highway of our God?

John’s desperate cry in the wilderness states our needed response: “Prepare the way” . . . Repent! “Make straight a highway for our God”. . .  Pave the highway! We must humble ourselves before him and pave the highway of our hearts by removing any obstacle hindering the entrance of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Preparing the way requires getting serious about God’s call to repentance. When we humble ourselves before him . . . he will come! And the venue of our hearts will be found “fit for the King.”