If…You Hide-and-Go-Seek

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs"...

 

If you ever took English from my mom or had a good English professor, you might remember this opening line to Rudyard Kiplin's poem, If. For some reason this phrase came to my mind this morning. I have so much to get done today...laundry, finish reading a couple of books, submit my last seminary paper, start decorating the house for Christmas, and spending time with the only other person in my house (Erin).

Part of the reason this phrase came to my mind was because this is Friday and people can act CRAZY...even more CRAZY than normal (which is an odd thing to think about – if Crazy is normal...) I digress. The other reason is part of the new Journey of Faith I am on.

When a company decides to close some of its offices, the employees become concerned and understandably so. Rumors start running amuck, and it is hard to determine fact from fiction at times. When I am with my co-workers, they immediately start talking about the possible office closings and all the speculations. Some automatically think they are safe. Some know they are going to have to relocate. Some throw out so many different possibilities you can't tell which way they are leaning. Truth is no one knows what is exactly going to happen. Truth is we all have a choice to make – look for a job now or wait. Truth is worrying won't change one thing. So when people start to speculate, most of the time I walk off...it that is possible.

Instead I am choosing to TRUST. Totally Relying Upon my Savior's Thoughts. Jeremiah 29:11 – 14 a, "For I know the plans/thoughts I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you." Declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity"...

TRUST is a two-way street. TRUST requires and demands a relationship...a personal, intimate relationship. TRUST requires that the relationship be a healthy one – God wants the best for us, His best. TRUST requires something from us. Trust demands action from us. "You WILL CALL...COME...PRAY." I will be seeking my heavenly Father. I will go to Him and lay down my concerns, worries, problems, etc., and I will pray. He PROMISES to Listen. For my part, I will SEEK HIM WITH ALL MY HEART, and like any Father who plays hide-and-go-seek with His daughter, He lets me find Him. He picks up me and carries me out of anything that binds me, restrains me.

I'm really liking that. Hide and go seek with my Father. Picture it in your head. I remember Patrick playing hide and go seek with Erin. He would choose to hide in the same place over and over again. Know why? That is the first place that he knew Erin would look! She would toddle around the end of the sofa and find her daddy and break out into this big grin and giggle. She didn't even know there was someplace else to look! When it was his turn to count, Erin would go to the end of the sofa and squat. Patrick would count and start "looking." Teasingly, He would say things like, "I have no idea where Erin went," or "Have you seen Erin?" All the while, we could hear Erin laughing. "Here I am, daddy. Here I am!" Her daddy knew where she was. Her daddy didn't have to look for her, but the reunion at the end of each hide and seek was the same – joy and laughter.

I will seek my Father...not that He is hiding from me, but because I have things I need to tell Him. He is where He always is. He is where He is when He waits on me. He smiles when I "find" Him. "He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). He picks you up and twirls you around, and He walks hand-in-hand with you his princess daughter...you.

(Boy, this blog went in a totally different direction than I thought it would go. I love having expectations of God, but I love it even more when He makes Himself so real that He takes you where He wants to lead you knowing it is a much sweeter place. Thank you, Jesus!)