Greetings in Christ,
Have you ever had an ah hah moment when you finally figured something out? You have been working on something and it does not make any sense. You struggle to figure out just what it is you need to know, and it becomes frustrating to the point it does not make any sense. You feel like you are running around in circles finding yourself starting in the same place you began. No one likes to be frustrated and not figure something out.
Many of you know I work in building maintenance as well as a pastor. With the maintenance job I am given many things to repair especially when they break. It is after something is broken, I go in and fix it, but when something is broken it is not always easy to figure out how it worked. I had such a challenge given to me by another co-worker.
I was handed a timer for a board game the co-worker took apart thinking they needed to change the batteries. This timer did not have batteries, but rather ran by winding a spring inside by turning the handle. When this person took apart the timer it let the tension on the spring launch the parts from inside of the timer all over this person’s desk leaving them speechless. They tried to repair it, but with no success to fix it. I happened to be working in the area when this person approached me asking if I could fix the timer.
Part of me was laughing, but the other part of me wanted to fix this timer, but with it in pieces I knew I had no idea just how it worked. My learning curve began. Holding several pieces of the timer with spring and gears looking at them trying to figure out just how it was designed to work I began to assemble it the way I thought it would work. I did not get it. I was looking trying to answer the riddle only to put it together the wrong way several times, but then the ah hah moment hit. I figured out how it worked, and I did a happy dance. I was proud as a peacock as I delivered a working timer to my co-worker. I had finally gotten just how the engineer/designer had wanted the timer to work.
The Bible is full of those ah hah moments for a lot of people. Genesis gives us a look at Joseph as he saw his brothers when they journeyed to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph’s brothers had no clue they were standing before their brother, for in their minds they felt their brother died a long time ago. They never in their wildest dreams felt they would be kneeling before their long-lost brother. They became so wrapped in their physical world of living they could not believe God would have stepped in to save Joseph from their evil intentions. The brothers had lived with the idea their brother was dead to the point they had even told their father Joseph had died in the desert, and they did not let another possibility enter their minds.
As they stood before Joseph, they thought they had been set up to die, but they did not know their brother was only testing them to see if they would recognize him on their own. Joseph later revealed himself to his brothers by telling them it was God’s plan for them to sell him in the desert and for God to place him in Egypt to preserve them a remnant of the earth and to keep them alive by a great deliverance. Joseph didn’t want them to fear what had happened, but rather embrace it as God’s design for the way they acted. It was their ah hah moment to realize God had thought through their actions and He had planned for things to work the way they did.
There are times in our live when it seems like things are falling apart especially when we try to fix them on our own. We open those areas of our lives looking for the answers to the riddle wandering just how things are working and how we can repair them, but we cannot place all the pieces back into place. We try to place them in the order we think they should go, but we do not have any success. We forget or do not go to the Father and ask for His help. We often think this could not be the way He designed our lives to work, but we cannot see all the things He has in place for us leaving out His greater design for all the pieces of our lives to fall into place so it works well for all concerned.
It is not until we can step back and look at the results, we can see just how our lives work for the greater good. It is when we have that ah hah moment, we can see how all the pieces should work thus seeing just how good God’s design was for our lives. It becomes our ah hah moment when we see the design unfold before our eyes and God does His happy dance rejoicing seeing His creation understands His greater plan.
When it seems as if our lives are falling apart, we need to go to the designer/creator and let Him fix it for us. We are far better off letting Him open up those areas of our lives doing the repairs so all the pieces will fall into place, and when the ah hah moment happens for us, we can do our happy dance rejoicing in His plan for our lives.
“The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” Psalm 34-15-22
Lord when those times of trials appear may we turn to You for our help so Your plan for our lives will remain intact and be for the greater good for all concerned. Amen
Blessings,