Recently, one of my colleagues who is trying to become more proficient in Spanish asked a Dominican taxi driver how to say “speed bump” in Spanish. The taxi driver replied, “Policia acostado”. Translated this means, “Policeman lying down”. He went on to say that if it is a particularly large speed bump they call it “Captain of the policeman lying down.”
We all need to slow down … and I’m convinced that God places speed bumps in our lives on a regular basis to force us to wait on Him. My wife and I have experienced this several times since we moved to the DR last fall, and more recently … with our daughter.
One of the main reasons for accepting the job offer at Santiago Christian School was to establish a stable home for our daughter to come to when she was released from prison on parole. This was supposed to happen in January, and to condense a long story down to a number of small speed bumps, she didn’t come to court for her parole request until April 3rd at which time we felt pretty confident that she would be released. Then, due to circumstances none of us could have foreseen, she was denied parole and we have had to slow down and wait on the Lord one more time.
For various reasons, our daughter felt it was prudent to appeal her case rather than to wait for three months to re-apply for parole. The law states that when an appeal is made the court system must reply with a new court date within 20 days. So our daughter immediately submitted an appeal and we began our 20-day wait for the reply.
Two weeks later we had still not heard from the court system and I read these words from my Bible one morning before school:
“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and
he shall strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psa 27:13,14
How many times had I read these verses over the last 46 years of my walk with God? But this time I saw the truth in a different light. It revealed to me the reason that God puts speed bumps in our lives. These verses are the testimony of a man who had walked with God from his youth (Psa 71:17) and it comes at the conclusion of the chapter. Looking back, we see that prior to uttering these amazing words David had described his driving motivation of life:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord
is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Verse 1
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. Verse 4
When thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face,
Lord, will I seek. Verse 8
Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of
my enemies. Verse 11
David is virtually shouting his desire to know God, to walk in a path that pleases God, to live in God’s strength rather than his own. This desire resonates with my own … and I would also venture to say that it is the desire that the Spirit places within the heart of every person at the new birth.
So how do we get to know God and receive this spiritual strength for godly living? David concludes simply that when we come to those speed bumps that God places in our lives, those circumstances over which we have no control, and we wonder if we will ever see the goodness of the Lord again as long as we are alive, that we should “wait on the Lord … and he shall strengthen thy heart.”
A day after that encouragement from the Word, we received a message from our daughter to let us know that her appeal has been scheduled for May 21st. At that time she will appear before a type of Supreme Court and will have a chance to share her testimony one more time … only this time before five judges. So we are now in the middle of what has been a 33-day wait. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) And who knows what will happen on the 21st?
In the meantime in the land of the living we are seeing the goodness of the Lord. My school’s board of education granted me special permission to go to the court on that day with my wife to be with our daughter even though I have already used all my allotted “personal days” of leave for this year, so they were very gracious.
Just before Christmas a teacher who was moving back to the States sold us her bed so our daughter would have something to sleep on. During Semana Santa (“Holy Week” where schools are released for the week before Easter) I came down with a pretty nasty cold and was sick six of the seven days. (In my eyes this was a “Captain of the policeman lying down” because we had to cancel a trip to the beach!) Because of my irritating cough at night I decided to sleep in the other bedroom on our daughter’s bed to allow my wife to get some sleep. For the first time, I discovered that I wouldn’t let my dog sleep on that bed (if we had one.) So now we are going through the tedious steps of buying another bed … a project in itself guaranteed to increase faith in 12 arduous steps for any couple who has moved to a new country, does not speak the language, and has no personal transportation. This extra time of “waiting” has given us the opportunity and time to hopefully get this done before she comes.
Our daughter continues to call us twice a week with her five-minute reports of her extended time in prison. God is ministering to her heart in a similar fashion and she is sounding more humble in her conversation. In each of our lives both she and we are seeing God’s goodness and learning what it means to live in His strength as we wait on the Lord’s timing.
Isaiah put it this way:
“The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high … and wisdom and
knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of
salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.” Isaiah 33:5,6
This is something that all believers need to learn and practice, and it is best learned as we wait on the Lord … when God puts in front of us a “policeman lying down”.
No comments:
Post a Comment