Don’t miss this!

I’ve been thinking lately about all the things we miss while we impatiently wait for other things to come or to happen… Like 2 weeks ago when I got back from New York and found out I wouldn’t be starting work for another 4 weeks, and immediately I started panicking about how we would survive financially (which is obviously a good thing to think through) but to be honest it could very much have stolen the fact that I had just been handed another 4 weeks holiday!!


What about the “miracles” and “fun” we miss over the fact that we just managed to make a ripper of a meal with the strange contents in our fridge and pantry, because we are too sad that God has not “delivered that cheque in the mail yet” and delivered us from our financial burden! Or what about the fun, easy-going, flexible life of being single that we so often miss because we are so miserably waiting to get married, or the precious moments we might miss with our children if we are a single parent because we just spend all our time worrying and hoping someone comes along. How about instead of being sad that we can’t afford the latest technology for the kids (or letting them be sad) celebrating the fun that can be had making up games and letting their imaginations go wild etc… (I know, I don’t have kids and don’t have to deal with the “but mum EVERYONE has one!”) Don’t get me wrong, these are just random situations that I thought up on the spot, and I know every season and circumstance comes with it’s aches and pains, worries and stresses and I do not mean to make light of any of our struggles or of your situation, but today, my heart is just that you would be reminded of what you DO have, RIGHT NOW, what you can be thankful for so that you “don’t miss this”!

We seem to spend every season looking forward to the next, and sure it is great to look forward to the future, but I think we need to ensure we don’t miss the present! Remember being a little one and not being able to wait till you start school, then remember being in school and desperately wishing the days and years away till you’ve finished school (only to be struck with the harsh reality of the fact that you had it pretty good at school…so many holidays!). Then being single and not being able to wait till you have a partner, then you get the partner and you can’t wait until you’re engaged, then you get engaged and you can’t wait until you are married, then you are married and you can’t wait until you have children. Your baby is lying on the carpet making cute noises but you just can’t wait till he crawls and walks, later in life you can’t wait till this young adult is married and out of your house and spending their own money, then they get married and leave and you get empty nest syndrome and want them back…… OK so potentially this is slightly extreme, but then again, maybe it’s not… All I’m trying to say is enjoy THIS moment, what can you do with what you’ve got RIGHT NOW, be thankful for the present as well as looking forward to the future!

Abraham, in Genesis, was told multiple times that he would be the father of many Nations, that his offspring would be greater all the stars in the sky, yet he continued to ask God how this could be because “You have given me no children”… Fair enough too, it’s hard to have offspring outnumbering the stars if you don’t even have one child!

But then I thought about the “in-between” for Abraham, the “don’t miss this” moments… What about where it says in Genesis 12vs5, ‘He set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran…’ Now I realise that it is probably completely against the culture for the Master, Abraham, to “parent” or to have any relationship other than Master and servant with the people he had acquired, I am assuming these people were people who worked for him, tending his livestock, servants in his household etc… I also realise that God told Abraham to leave his Father’s household and this potentially should have included Lot… But just as a random thought (so humour me…), what if Abraham had looked at the promise of God, the fact that one day he would have many offspring, and he had thought to himself, “Well I don’t have any yet, but I do have Lot my Nephew, and I do have these men and women who are our servants that I can care for well.” What if instead of always asking God, “but how is it going to happen” and then going about making it happen himself (and getting a little too close to the servant…), he had just seen what he had in the meantime, he had blessed those he had in his care already and “practiced” being a Father to them…

Hmm, yeah I’m not sure if this is just a completely random pattern of thought going on here!! Ha! I do see many similarities in it when matching it with my own life though! The “God, but how is this going to happen” questions and then occasionally trying to ‘help’ God and probably getting it all wrong! Waiting impatiently for things to come along, for dreams to be fulfilled, even falling into that terrible trap of looking at what others have and what others have achieved and feeling that somewhere along the line I’ve missed it. Hmm, very bad!

Oh if only we would learn to love the in-between and not to miss what God is doing in this moment right now, and what He has blessed us with right here! Yes there is more coming, yes He has good things in store for you, but He has also given us great things right now! Habakkuk 2vs3 …Though it tarries (takes an awful long time), wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay (His delay, not our delay!) – my paraphrased version!

For us…
One day we would like to own our own home, but right now I am SO thankful for the amazing unit that we are renting, it’s location and view and the joy it brings to my soul! (Plus the fact if something goes wrong we just ring the agent…!!)
One day we would like to have children of our own, but right now we are enjoying just being the two of us (maybe a little too much…) and are sowing into teenagers in our local Church who potentially don’t know the love of a Christian mum or dad.
Our bank account is not as flourishing as I know that it will be one day, but right now I am so thankful to God that we have what we have, we are trying to be good stewards with what He’s given us and to bless others and be generous with what we have right now.
I am not as active in the world of Ministry that I was or that I know I will be in the future and I miss it, but right now I am making sure that I enjoy this season where things aren’t as busy, going deeper with God, taking time to really look at what He’s doing in me right now and to do a few things that have been on my heart for a long time but I haven’t had the time to do.
We don’t have as many friends here in Sydney as we did in Brisbane or Adelaide, it can get lonely at times and we can sit around “wishing” we did, but instead we are just constantly introducing ourselves to people, asking for phone numbers (even when sitting on the bus! Haha), making an effort to ring people and to organise times to hang out, we are just enjoying getting to know new people in our world!

I could go on and on and on and on… There are so many dreams in our hearts, and we are praying and believing and strategising for the future, but we are certainly making sure we enjoy the present, the ‘in-between’!

What about you… what are the “don’t miss this” things in your world right now that you can think of?

Jodes x