12-11-16
Honesty time. I spend a lot of time planning. A to-do list ranked in order of importance with multi-colored highlights calms my mind. Scary, I know. Sometimes I get bogged down in the what-ifs and maybe-it-wills. Then today, I saw a verse in a new way.
And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large. – Mark 16:3-4
Here, the women who had followed Jesus through His ministry wanted to anoint Him with the spices they had prepared. They took the time to get together what they needed, and then they went to the tomb. Instead of wondering what to do when they got there, they just went. Their goal was to anoint Jesus, and they focused on one thing at a time.
Then they started to wonder how they would get the stone moved, but it was already gone. Maybe sometimes life is like that for us. Yes, there are times we need to plan, but sometimes we just have to go. If I start thinking about all of the potential outcomes of a situation, I can become paralyzed with my bulleted lists and highlighters. At some point we’ve got to move toward our goal and trust God to help straighten the rest out.
The women expected to have an obstacle. The stone in front of the tomb wouldn’t have been easy for them to move alone. But what could have been a dilemma was solved for them. How many times does that happen in our lives? I find myself worrying about things and creating elaborate schemes to make the pieces of my life fit together as neatly as a jigsaw puzzle. Then God pulls one string in a ginormous knot, and it cleanly falls free.
There will be times in life we run up against quandaries that we do have to put some thought into to get around. Other times, let’s pay attention to how the God who sees all possibilities sorts things out better than we ever can.
How has God cleaned up issues in your life?
May the Lord bless and keep you,
Heather
Heather Tabata 