When You’re All Done!

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 24, 2019 

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:25-26

Before my grandson, Hudson, was even a year old, my bonus daughter, Allie, and son-in-law, Ethan, started teaching him simple sign language to help him express his needs. One of the main signs he learned was “all done.” All done with lunch, all done playing, all done being pushed in his stroller. Whenever he wants to be finished with something, he signals “all done” and his parents know what he wants. 

This particular sign was strongly used by Hudson a while back when he landed in the doctor’s office. 

One afternoon just after he turned two, Allie sent my husband and I a text to let us know that Hudson had broken a bone. While running in the living room at a friend’s house, he caught his foot on the edge of the carpet and fell. He immediately started to cry, then didn’t want to get up and play. This wasn’t like him. 

His mom, a very perceptive lady, took Hudson to the doctor. After a few x-rays, the doc announced that our little Hud Bud had broken a small bone on the top of his foot. So, he gave him a special shoe to wear to keep his foot stabilized while playing and running and doing all the things that toddlers do. Two months later, his foot is healed. 

One obvious truth emerged while Hudson sat on the table under the x-ray machine: he definitely was not a fan and he let the x-ray tech and his mom know by using his “all done” sign language. Allie told us he raised his hands “toward God” and cried out while making the appropriate motion. “All done! All done!” 

Have you ever felt like Hudson? Perhaps you’re in a difficult situation. Maybe you put yourself there or somewhere else put you there or the Lord put you there. But you’re not a fan and you want the whole thing to be “All done!”  

You beg and plead for the Lord to make the mess disappear. . . to solve the family conflict, to quickly answer your prayer for a new job, to heal your broken heart, to clear up your confusion and give you clarity, because—frankly—you’re totally, completely, and undeniably all done! 

I imagine how the Lord must feel while we cry out to Him, that we just want our ordeals to be finished. How His loving heart must go out to those He loves. But He knows that there is no way around our troubles. 

So, we have to stay put until He finishes doing His work, just as the x-ray tech had to finish his work for Hudson. If He provides the answer too soon, or allows us to move forward too quickly before the work is complete, the healing will not be finished, the answer will not be His perfect will, the lesson will not be learned, the heart change will be short circuited, our faith will not grow and our confidence will be stunted. So, like a loving parent, He provides the answers we need at just the right time.

This doesn’t mean you can’t cry out to the Lord and say, “All done!” He understands. But be encouraged. . . He will provide the answer you need at the perfect time. 

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Prayer

Lord, please help me to press into you and trust you while the waiting is difficult and I am hurting. Help me to keep my eyes firmly fixed on your love and the truth that you will answer in your time and in the best and most compassionate way. Amen.

Application

Write a prayer to the Lord and pour out your heart to Him about waiting.

Related Reading

Proverbs 3:5-6; Acts 16:23-26; Psalm 27:13-14; Psalm 37:7-9

Post/Tweet today

Like a loving and wise parent, God provides the answers we need at just the right time. #WisdomHunters #difficulty #Jesus

Worship Resource

6 minute video: Julie True: 

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