In the Course of Time

I am currently going through Beth Moore's study of David: Seeking A Heart like His.  I have enjoyed this study immensely as I seem to do all of the Beth Moore studies that I've participated in.  The last thing I have ever thought I had was a heart like David's.  But God seems to be using this study to speak to me about the work He has done and is doing in my own life.  I find that there is hope for me to have a heart like David's yet.  And the lessons up to this point so closely resemble what God has done for me that I have been able to look ahead and see and believe that God is going to use the quiet silent moments for His ministry more fully in the near future.

At the end of January I shared my testimony through the lens of friendship at a women's retreat.  I am hoping to post it here next week, but this post just seemed like it should go first, I guess because no good story comes about without the hidden element of time.  After I post my own testimony then I have at least two other Incredible Faith Stories that I am excited to share, not that I feel my story is incredible, but I know that it is to God.  If you've never studied the life of David, I highly encourage you to do so.

In the course of time, David inquired of the LORD. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” he asked.  2 Samuel 2:1

Prior to this verse, David had heard of the death of his best friend, Jonathan, and of his enemy, Saul, who was Jonathan's father.  He grieved, and it took the course of time to heal.

Beth Moore writes of this verse, "Some things just take 'the course of time.'  Nothing else works.  You can bet some lonely hours filled that 'course of time.'  Some tears.  Some regrets.  Some endless replays.  Some anger.  Some confusion.  But it did finally pass.  Not the ache but the pain.  Blessedly, thankfully 'in the course of time.'"  If there was anyone who understood the course of time, it was David.  God has clearly opened Beth's eyes to see details about the events that are hidden in small simple words.  All the events of his life after his anointing as king but prior to his being made king were to prepare him as king.  I sorta feel like everything I have undergone up until now have prepared me for something God will soon show me.  I am excited to see what.

In the course of time, things change.  In 9 months, babies grow in wombs and are born.  My own baby has in the course of time gone from being unable to do anything for herself at all to crawling and pulling up and babbling and communicating with  us in her babyish way in only 10 more months.  For a long time, I thought my oldest daughter would never go to the potty on her own, but over time, she has, does, and will continue to do so (I hope).  She has become funny and delightful and more settled into herself at least for now at age 5.  In the course of time, my son will one day stop whining.  He was funny and outgoing for a small time and has become shy and reserved - still finding his place.  My husband was not at all into the things of God when I first met him.  He seemed unreachable, and yet, over time, He now knows God and I see the fruits of God working in him.  In my own life, I was ready to do God's work, green and fresh, but He needed to mature me.  Years have passed, and I have found Him to be good and fully good, and better than the God I thought I knew.  Had I not gone though a season of maturation, I think I would have become stagnant and unusable.  Instead, He chose to mold me.  I have come to a place where I am glad to be the wooden spoon.

What makes the time beautiful I think is the scars - the moments of now intertwined with the moments of then (pain) and the moments of tomorrow (hope).  Sometimes, I look at my children, and it is hard to make peace with the time, but then I remember that though time brings change and often uncertainty, one thing we can be certain of is God's ever-present, never-changing, goodness, working in the midst of all we do.  And who are we that He chooses to work in and through us?

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."  Ecclesiastes 3:11

Time is one these mysteries that one cannot truly fathom.  But if we hold on just a little longer, you can guarantee that God will work out that pain for something good and beautiful. 

Written to be shared with Ann Voscamp's community at A Holy Experience, 

fostering a spiritually disciplined way to look at time.