My life changed quickly when I started having severe nerve pain from two damaged discs in my neck. For several days, I tried to keep to my usual routine. But it didn’t take long for me to end up spending my days either in the recliner or lying flat most hours in the day. Nerve pain has a way of getting your attention!
When life comes to a screeching halt, it provides a unique opportunity to gain new perspective. Life moves from “default” mode to “dependence” mode. Instead of being self-sufficient, I am suddenly dependent on many people to provide everything from medical care, meals, laundry, etc. And I am not a fan. ☹
Even more importantly, from this vantage point, I can clearly see how I have been living in default mode in many areas of my life. I make my plans and ask God to bless them. I speed through the day, giving my Creator, Savior, and Lord a portion of time. My day is filled with doing things for God, for others, for myself, and there is a lot of “good” in there. But what would a life of dependence look like… dependence on God’s direction and plan? Exodus-style living where I move when the cloud moves and stay when the cloud stays ?
Exodus 40:36-37 NIV “ In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.”
Those who follow God move when God moves. Not before… not after… when. .
I invite you to become a cloud watcher. It’s not the days that I “set out” (verse 36) that take the most faith and courage. It’s the days where I “did not set out” (verse 37) that are my greatest challenge. Those days when the cloud does not move, and God tells me to wait and watch for His signal can be the hardest.
So, in the waiting, when the cloud is not moving, I sit and watch the night fall over the landscape. I’m spending a lot more time watching birds these days. I enjoy discovering truth found in God’s Word with my daughter as we walk through 1 Thessalonians together.
Days are simple. And I have a great view of the clouds.
In your life is the cloud moving or are you in a season of waiting?