Solomon and Circadian rhythms

It is now almost 1AM. I fell asleep just as Jeopardy was finishing, and am now as wide awake as a nocturnal hunting animal. In another hour or so I will start to doze again. As my doctor warned me, night work would confuse my Circadian sleep rhythms. (Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are a family of sleep disorders affecting, among other things, the timing of sleep. People with circadian rhythm sleep disorders are unable to sleep and wake at the times required for normal work, school, and social needs. --Wikipedia) After two and a half years of working 3AM to noon or later, those rhythms are not just confused--they seem to be stuck in the night mode.

In thinking about this, a passage came to mind which bears considering as I approach the autumn of life. Yes, folks, I don't think of it as that, but that is what it is, and I discover daily the truth of the little sign Grandma Hirschy had in her living room which said "Ve get too soon oldt, und too late schmart."

The passage I am referring to is the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes. Even those of us who were "good" kids can look back at many episodes in our lives and say with the Preacher "Meaningless, meaningless! ... Everything is meaningless!"

But for the presence of God in my life in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit, much of life would be without meaning, useless, an endlessly repetitive performance of tasks. But if I have learned anything in the last four years, it is that even in endless repetition, God can give us joy, and even pleasure, if we heed the words of the Preacher: "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them'." (Eccl. 12:1, NIV)

If that dimension of life is not found, life truly does become, as verses 2 through 7 illustrate, an endless "organ recital" in which the only thing we can think of is what is going wrong with our bodies and how our members are slowly shutting down and leading us to the final resting place of our flesh--the grave.

Once we have learned the joy of keeping our Creator in mind as a practice of life, though, we can conclude with the Preacher: "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

With all of this in mind, I can only ask: Why does it take me so long to learn such wonderful truths? Was it necessary for everything to start falling apart before I realized that what puts meaning into life is a life of constant "God sightings". His work is always there--but quite often our lack of positive response makes us blind to His presence and insensitive to His desires for us. My desire for the rest of my life is to be always alert (even if I don't sleep at the right times) to God's work in my life, and ready for another day of rejoicing in my walk with Him.

The Quadruple Annunciation and Three Responses

Pastor Jim Laird had a very good message this morning. He shared with us the four annunciations. There is only one annunciation in the Bible, you say. Well, while technically that may be so, there are actually four. These are the annunciation to Zechariah, when an angel from the Lord told him of the birth of John the Baptist, who would herald the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. The message was that Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were 'way too old to have children, would have a child. Zechariah's response brought him a reproof from God in the form of a nine month case of extreme laryngitis. Why, because his response was one of "disbelief". After all, did he not know of the precedent God had set with Abraham and Sarah? God has very little tolerance for our disbelief.
The second annunciation was the one which we always call by that name. The archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a child, and that the child would have no physical father (though he did have an adoptive father in Joseph). Mary understood the words she was hearing, but was not able to understand how this could possibly happen--after all, it had never happened before, and never will again!! So her question was born of lack of belief, not disbelief. Our lack of belief can come about due to lack of information. God is okay with that, so long as it does not mean we choose not to believe because we cannot see how it could happen. God blessed Mary by giving her an answer--With God nothing is impossible. He also gave her the joy of being His vehicle for bringing Jesus into this world. WOW! The Word tells us that she treasured these things in her heart. Of course, she did. If we were to ask her about it, her response would have to be "if I told you, you'd never believe it." But at the wedding in Cana, her belief had matured, and she said "do whatever He tells you to do." Oh that my trust in Him would be so deep that my response would be "Aye, Aye, Sir", not "Why, Why, Sir".
The third annunciation came to Joseph when he had found out that Mary was expecting her first child. Since he had nothing to do with it, he naturally assumed that she had been unfaithful to her betrothal vows. But he loved Mary so much that he did not want to humiliate her, so he was planning to divorce her quietly. Enter an angel from the Lord, who told him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home and give her his family name, for God was in this thing. His response, though he did not understand all the details, was to consider the source of the message, and to follow through with taking her as his wife, without consummating the marriage until after Jesus was born. His action was proof of his belief, and if he had been mentioned in Hebrews, he would have been in the list of the Heroes of the Faith. God's direction is not always the "logical" thing. Many times it requires a decision to obey in spite of consequence. That is what Joseph did.
The fourth and final annunciation was given by a multitude of angels to the shepherds who camped out in the fields taking care of their sheep. The message was that a Savior was born, and their response was a joyful belief accompanied by immediate action. They did not even go and get a "sheepsitter", but went immediately to see this one who was born the Messiah of Israel. God rewarded them with a place of honor in the Scriptures. They did not question the message or the messengers. They only responded with immediate joy and extreme curiosity. I had to think: What would be my response in such a situation? Would I believe readily, and act upon that belief, or would I want proof?
God wants us to trust Him enough to obey without doubting. He does not always tell us why, but when he tells us what he wants from us, our response should be to obey joyfully and immediately.

Be Still and Know

Impatience is a human trait. Even a person who is naturally calm and longsuffering shows impatience sometimes. Now that everyone at my workplace and at our church knows that we are planning to move to Charleston, SC, I have begun feeling like the laughingstock, because no progress is being made toward that move. Michael's house has not sold, my transfer has not come through, and the economy has gone down to such a point that it may be impossible to sell the house except at a great loss.


But we are convinced that the move is His will, and are pursuing it while at the same time following our routine. So the question comes up: Did you pick up a wrong cue somewhere? Second guessing is not hard to do in my case, since most moves we have ever made have resulted in a worse financial situation. Looking back, though, they have brought about different aspects of growth that I needed, and for that I am thankful. Our move to Atlanta brought me face to face with the fact that I had not done much in the way of outreach, and that I knew even less about informal evangelism, the kind that allows people to get close to you and see what makes you tick and only then seeks a decision on the part of the unsaved person. I was able to observe the results in the life of several of the church folk here at Grace Church, and came to the conviction that it was not only what I needed to do, but that it would fit my way of relating to people much better than "buttonholing" a person on the first chance encounter. I asked the Lord to give me the opportunities to put that type of evangelism into practice, and He started to put a real burden on my heart for several of the vendors I dealt with day in and day out. After over a year of establishing a caring relationship with them, I began to find out about their lives, and finally felt that I was having some impact on them. Several of them turned out to be believers who desperately needed someone to care about them, pray for them and listen to them. Others were aware of the gospel but had not yet made a decision for Christ. Easter Sunday 2008 was a glorious day in that one of my vendors came to church (where he had attended as a child over thirty years ago) and made his public decision to accept Christ as Savior. It has been such a joy to see him grow throughout these last eight or nine months, and see how he has become burdened for others and has led one of his friends to Christ.

Many times during these four years of working at my present place of employment I have been ready to throw in the towel. But at those times the Lord has reminded me that my job is to be a witness, and that I am to "be still and know that (He is) God". (Psalm 46:10)

So we are back in "God's waiting room" waiting for Him to move in the salvation or rededication of others around us and the transfer to Charleston. His timing is always perfect, and any impatience on my part is wasted energy.