An Appointed Time

If you read my last blog post, “To Bid Adieu,” that I published a few days ago on September 29, 2023, you’ll know that a significant event that happened to me back in 2009 has finally come to conclusion (sort of). It wasn’t the conclusion I was hoping for way back in 2009 when it happened, but it is still a conclusion of sorts 15 years later. This post is a “jumping-off point” from that post.

I read a devotion yesterday in The Upper Room titled, “My Restart Button.” The author is an 81-year-old architectural designer living in South Africa whose son introduced him to computer-aided drafting after he went blind in one eye at the age of 70. He stated that as he learned to use the software, he would often push the wrong button, and the remedy was always the same–restart the computer. He then stated:

I have had serious problems–financial struggles, business or career setbacks, health issues, bereavements, illness, worry, and shame. But in such times the Holy Spirit reminds me: “Have peace, pray, and restart.” And the greatest restart of my life was at age 16 when I knelt before the cross, confessed my sins, and asked Jesus to restart my life in his covenant.

He finished his devotion with this prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, help us to restart our lives through the simple words that you taught us, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-13, NIV). Amen. (Quote source here.)

Then, this morning, I read a blog post published today titled, “Faith Like Amazon?” which really made me think about the point the blogger was making. Near the end of her post, she wrote:

Give God everything, the trite, the trivial, the superficial, the things that matter and the things that don’t, and then trust in Him. Trust Him to handle ALL things, from the minute to the huge. Have coffee with Him. Chat as if He were your best friend or a Beloved Father, because He really is. (Quote source here.)

Both contain great advice:

• Have peace, pray, and restart
• Give God everything (no limit on what “everything” entails)
• Trust God to handle ALL things (from tiny to huge)
• Chat as if He is your best friend or beloved Father (because He is!)

One item on my list of “everything” that I have prayed about for a long time is regarding “stagnating.” I hate stagnating. Not everything is stagnating in my life, but I feel like I’ve been put “on hold” indefinitely at times, and I’ve prayed about it on a regular basis ever since I lost that job back in 2009 at the age of 56. I wanted and needed to find work, and I needed to earn a paycheck to support myself since I was single and self-supporting. But during my massive and years-long job search (over six years and counting back then), it seemed like walls “a mile high” prevented me from finding work here in America, the so-called “Land of Opportunity.” Opportunity for whom, exactly?

Over the years since 2009, I’ve discovered some answers, but they are beyond me to fix, solve, or remedy on my own. For example, ageism is alive and well in America and it is certainly a key factor. I had to get older to understand just how much ageism is at work in our society today, and ageism starts as young as 40 here in America according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And when looking for work, ageism is easily disguised behind terms like “over-qualified” to avoid any legal ramifications for the employers. And even religious discrimination is on the rise in the workplace. I have witnessed it on secular college/university campuses (my field of work for over 20 years was in the area of Student Services/Student Affairs at colleges and universities). According to the Office of Civil Rights regarding religious discrimination, they state:

Harassment based on religion can take many different forms, including religious slurs, workplace graffiti, or other offensive verbal or physical conduct directed towards any religious group that is so severe or pervasive that the individual being harassed reasonably finds the work environment to be hostile or abusive. Employers may be liable not only for harassment by supervisors, but also by co-workers or by non-employees under the supervisor’s control. (Quote source here.)

Other factors are involved but are ambiguous enough to not be included here. I don’t want to get beyond the scope of the topic for this post, either, and the two items I have mentioned–ageism and religious discrimination–are big enough on their own.

It’s sort of funny how one can pray about something for decades and never see it’s fruition, and yet never get the feeling that they should stop praying about it, either. With the passing of time and getting older, too, one’s view on the matter of which they have spent decades praying about might change a bit, but the prayer request is always present, even with the passing of a lifetime and all the changes that have occurred over that lifetime. Life is not over until our last breath is breathed, so the request goes on. Obviously this request of mine extends way beyond losing that job in 2009 and never finding another one. I’ve actually stopped praying about ever finding another job. If it happens, so be it, but I’m not praying for it anymore.

But there is a prayer that goes back to when I was 24, and it was the Bicentennial Year Celebration here in America… 1976. It had to do with two verses in Habakkuk that were brought up in a woman’s Bible study that I was a part of back then, and those two verses are found Habakkuk 2:2-3 (NKJV):

Then the Lord answered me and said:

“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”

At the time I remember as I read it that it seemed to be applying to something that would happen much later in my life, but I had no clue exactly what it looked like that was supposed to happen. All I knew was that I would be “old” when it happened. Of course, at the time I was 24, and to me “old” started at 40 or 50 or 60. But those ages have now come and gone, and I still have no clue what those two verses are about as they pertain to my own life. However, in all of these years since then, I have never stopped praying about it, either–not necessary daily or weekly or even monthly, but it has never left me nor have I ever felt compelled to stop to praying about it. It lingers on like a mist or vapor waiting for it to dissipate so I can see what I’ve been waiting for all these years.

That sounds a bit esoteric, doesn’t it? But I’m not expecting some big mystery to suddenly make itself known. It’s probably something rather simple, but I won’t know until it finally shows up. At least I know at my age that I’m not going to be giving birth like my namesake in the Bible (Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who gave birth to their first child, Isaac, at the age of 90–that’s just a bit of humor I thought I’d throw in)… 🙂 I would not find that amusing at all!!! My childbearing years are behind me and let them stay there, too. I have never given birth, but it has never been a big deal to me. Maybe I’ll give birth to a book, but I haven’t felt inclined to write a book yet, either.

So, the “stagnating” I mentioned above is not only work related–a feeling of restlessness from never finding work that pays since 2009–but perhaps it has to do with that prayer, and wondering when the wait will be over, whatever it is that I’ve been waiting for since I was 24.

I’ll end this post with the same words that the 81-year-old architectural designer from South Africa ended his devotion with that are found in Matthew 6:9-13 from the NKJV: In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom…

And the power . . .

And the glory forever.

Amen.

YouTube Video: “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” by Matt Maher:

Photo #1 credit here
Photo #2 credit here