Heart Arrhythmia: Stepping Out of Tempo

I am deeply concerned. Here's what is troubling me. Yesterday, I read a comment - one of hundreds on Facebook - written by someone I didn't know personally, who had placed her hope in a second term for President Trump. She had entrenched that hope so firmly, that she declared words to the effect of: "I'm losing my faith over this. God seems like He's struggling here. He promised us a Trump presidency, but He can't pull out a victory."

Oh, no. No. When did our Savior become anyone other than Jesus Christ?! How this tears at my heart! Have we so misplaced our hope that it has come to rest entirely on a person, any person besides the promised One? Psalm 20:7 reminds us: "Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God!" 

How have we arrived at this place where we think we so thoroughly understand what God wants, that if God's will looks a little different from what we had hoped... God is wrong?!

No. No, no, no. Church, if we are of this opinion, if we cannot admit that in our humanity, we are off-kilter now and then, we are doomed to failure. Isaiah 55:8-9 puts it best: "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are My ways your ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'"

I have heart-arrhythmia. It is not yet to the point where it needs constant medication, though the doctors have told me it will likely reach that point in the distant future. For now, they say, take magnesium supplements. Whenever I feel the familiar trip-hammer heartbeat, I should cough; it acts as a sort of reset button. Then, I spend a little time taking some slow, deep, steady breaths. In, out. In, out. For now, this is how I'm managing it.

This essential organ of mine is extremely dependable for most of the time, most of the days. Until it decides to step out of rhythm, disrupt its steady tempo. When that happens, my body doesn't know what to do. It spazzes out a little. Panic spikes my thoughts. What if it doesn't stop?! Worse, what if it stops altogether?!!

It's not a perfect analogy, obviously, as heart arrhythmia is an unstable condition, and God is unchanging and more dependable than the seasons. But it's an illustration. Do we panic when we step out of kilter with God? Lord, it's not supposed to be this way!! Do we think that, because God's plan doesn't exactly fit our preconceived notions like we thought it should, that He is in the wrong?

Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created mankind in His own image, so why do we keep trying to remake God in our image? 

Yes, I did actually continue on with Genesis 21 today (you thought I'd gotten sidetracked, didn't you?). The chapter covers three events: the birth of Isaac, Ishmael and Hagar's exile into the desert, and the treaty between Abraham and Abimelech. All of these are interesting narratives, and could each contain a good deal of spiritual application, but there was a single phrase that stood out to me more than anything else: "Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him" (Genesis 21:2).

God has been promising Isaac's birth for quite a while now. Years, in fact, have gone by since the first time God has met with Abraham and tells him that he will be the father of nations. Many, many years. 

Decades pass. There's an Ishmael that comes about as a result of Sarah and Abraham's impatience. There is disbelieving laughter as hopes dry up like sagebrush and blow away in the desert winds. 

2 Peter 3:8-9 reminds us of this: "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

When we cry out to God, wondering why He hasn't stepped up to our expectations, at the time we've given Him to fulfill those expectations... is it any wonder we lose our hope when it's so terribly misplaced?

God is constant, steady, unchanging, and we've thrown our hope somewhere off to the side of Him. There, Lord, move over there! We writhe and wrestle against our circumstances, listening to the different heartbeat, and we panic.

God says: "Be still. Be still." 

"Be still and know that I. Am. God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psalm 46:10).

When the waves threaten to overwhelm and we cry out to God: Teacher, don't you care if we drown?

God says: "Peace, be still. Be still." Breathe. In, out. In, out. I've got this.

"God reigns over the nations; God is seated on His holy throne" (Psalm 47:8). "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21). 

"As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

Oh Lord, keep us in step with You! Forgive us for trying to bring You into step with us! Open us up completely to transformation, Lord, so that we are in line with Your thoughts, Your ways. Let us not place our hope in certain people. People are awfully fallible. 

"Show me Your ways, oh Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long" (Psalm 25:4-5).