God's Time Out

One of the more influential people in my life is Dr. Dale Meyer, Emeritus President of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. While sitting in my “Holy Time Out” waiting for my CT scan, I read what “Dr. Dale” wrote on March 2, 2020 about the coronavirus:

“The virus can scare us because we don’t have control over it. Lack of control can lead to fear, and fear can lead to anger. Some blame China; others blame our government. In the blame-game anger is present. Anger comes when something we hold dear is threatened, in this case our lives and the lives of those close to us may be threatened. When we follow the news with spiritual eyes, we see human nature as it really is, as we really are apart from grace” (The Meyer Minute, March 2, 2020). You can read his entire devotion here.

On Monday, my idea of life has indeed been threatened - this time not by COVID-19, but by a small and painful calcified stone lodged in my cecum. How did it get there? Why is it there? What is its composition? Do I have “the c-word”? Everything at that moment (and still today as I write this), I couldn’t control.

As I waited for my name to be called, I reflected on some other life aspects that I couldn’t control.

These are a few things that scrambled through my mind.

• I’m seven months closer to seeing Jesus.
• Debates and the ongoing election process now occupy the majority of space in every one of my news feeds. 
• The elusive economy is as unpredictable as what Jonah will eat for breakfast.
• My mind races to process how best to love and serve such a diverse community that God has called me to serve and lead.
• My heart breaks as so many of us are flirting with pandemic burnout - a state of feeling gassed out, our schedules becoming maxed out, which leads us to check out.
• There are others, but this will suffice for now.

And as I sat there in the middle of a swirling world with a racing mind and broken heart, I started laughing to myself.

I was in God’s Holy Time Out. Just like a coach calls a time out to re-focus their team, a Holy Time Out is a way God huddles us together to bring focus to what He wants to do in us so that He can do something through us.

What did I do in my time out? I just sat there.

What did I see?

• Ambulances rolling in one after another with sick people who were loved by the same God who loves me.
• A few confused discharged patients waiting and wondering if their ride home would ever come.
• A woman who accidentally fell down the stairs and broke her ankle.
• Another woman sucker-punched by her (hopefully by now, former) boyfriend.
• A family struggling to check their daughter in because they spoke Spanish.
• Hospital workers responding to whatever situation presented itself.
• And so much more.

What did I learn in my Holy Time Out? It’s all out of my control.

I think about how the Hebrew people must have felt out of control in 586 BC. Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and taken everybody into a whole new world. And in the chaos, noise, and clutter of life, God calls a Holy Time Out. He sends Isaiah to get the attention of the Hebrew people saying, “But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

Those words are true in my time out today as they were around 586 BC. And, they’re true for you today, too. 

When everything seems out of control, we’re in “time out”: God is in control. We have nothing to fear because God has redeemed us through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. God has called us by name. We are God’s.

Which means even when our life and world is spinning out of control, we continue to love and serve the people around us.

• So, I prayed for the unknown people being transported in on each ambulance.
• I asked God to give steady hands and a sharp mind to the rescue workers and medical teams.
• I sat for over an hour listening to stories from a scared Vietnam veteran wondering if his brother was going to pick him up.
• I laughed with a young woman share how she tripped over her own feet.
• I cried and encouraged the girl who was worried if her boyfriend was going to hit her again.
• I found Isaiah 43:1 in Spanish on my phone and shared it with the Spanish-speaking family in my "Gringo Spanish".
• And, as I left the ER that day, I told every nurse and tech I saw on my way out, "deep breath. God's got this and you do, too".

I don't share this to brag, but to share that perhaps God's Time Out was not just for me.

After all, I'm not in control.