Caution: God at Work

"I will refine them as silver is refined,

and test them as gold is tested"

Zechariah 13:9

So I drove 1600 miles last weekend.  Well, actually, I didn't drive all that way.  I was with my folks, and they did a fair amount of the driving.  We were on our way to visit my sister and her family.  She and her husband had the lead roles in their community musical, so my folks and I drove up to see the performance.

Road trips can be fun.  Some good music; maybe some fun treats you wouldn't normally allow yourself; time to chat, uninterrupted by TV or phone.  Well, mostly.  I guess nowadays it's possible to let those things interrupt, even in the car, if you let them.

But one thing that's not fun about long-distance driving, is the construction.

Everybody likes the benefits of construction: smooth roads taking us to the places we want to be.   But having to drive through a construction zone is a hassle.  If you live near a place that's being improved, that can be a pain because you have to deal with it on a frequent basis, until they finish what they are doing.

last year; outside our house

But it's also a nuisance when you're on a long road-trip.  Our goal was not wandering for exploration; it was to get to our destination as soon as we could, to maximize our time with our family.  So construction was just slowing us down.

But here's the really frustrating part ~ we really didn't see any construction.  We saw lots of traffic cones, and more than once the highway went down to one lane, but only once did we see anyone actually doing any work.  I believe the cones were there for a good reason, and I truly appreciate the guys {and gals.  but mostly guys.} who do that hot, tiring work.  But it was hard to give them the benefit of the doubt ~ that they were doing something valuable and important ~ when I couldn't see anything being done. 

And it made me realize I hate it in my spiritual life, too.  I drove past all these orange cones, thinking how frustrating it is when God's hard at work in my life, and I can't see what it is He's doing.  Sometimes He's letting me go through hard things; sometimes he's letting "unpleasant" people remain in my life; sometimes He's giving me a job to do that I don't want to do; sometimes He's just making me wait.

Oh, but our God is faithful.  All the time.  He is thinking of us, and loving us, and working in us, all the time. 

Whether we can see it or not. 

~ "Now made the God of peace...

make you complete... working in you

what is well-pleasing in His sight" ~

Hebrews 13:20,21