Hearing God in the Drive-Thru Lane

      I was in the drive-thru lane at Rosa’s on Andrews Highway a couple of days ago and, I don’t know what I was listening to that prompted this but, I started praying while I waited.

      “Lord help me through this transition stage of mostly unemployment but sort of being retired, until I land with enough work to keep me active and busy. I can envision an ideal solution and I’m asking you to make it happen. Prepare my heart and mind for the future by giving me peace, contentment, and patience.”

      And then, as I made the hard 90* turn to the left continuing toward the ordering station, I considered that, maybe, probably, what I call transition isn’t transitory at all, but is here to stay for a while. In the past, when I’ve told myself I’m in a temporary situation waiting for the next step, often I discover what I considered temporary was God’s answer all along. He wasn’t waiting for my perfect scenario or for all the details to fall into place. He was actively engaged and had me where he needed me.

      The problem of transitions is I’m seldom fully invested in projects and chores. I’m always holding back. There is a cost to living that way. I miss the present because I’m looking to the future.

      Later, when I told Cyndi about this, she reminded me what Legolas said to Gimli in The Return of the King, “Do not spoil the wonder with haste!” In other words, don’t race through the present on your way to the future. Leave space for wonder.

      As I turned in my order – two #12s beef and a large Diet Coke – I remembered something I’d noticed recently while reading my Daily Bible. In Jeremiah 29 God told the Jews to settle into their captivity in Babylon, to make a home and plant food and accept the bad situation. Settle in; you’ll be here for a while.

      And then, only ten pages later, in Jeremiah 51, God warned them not to remain in Babylon, but be prepared to move on. Pack up; it’s time to move on.

      In my reading plan, the two seemingly mixed messages were only three pages apart. In real time they were separated by seventy years.

      I thought – what if the present, which feels unstable and unsettling to me, is not transitive, but where God wants me. What if this is it for now, whether three days or seventy years, so settle in, and also prepare to move on?

      I was so moved by my mental journey I pulled into a parking place so I could scribble notes on a yellow sticky pad. I considered going inside the restaurant to tell Rosa’s they should put up a sign saying, Listen to God speak while in the drive-thru line, but decided against it. It was noon and they were too busy to listen to my advice.

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      P.S. Here’s the thing. It’s easy to tell stories about the drive-thru lane and write about what I learn from Jeremiah; it’s harder to do something about it. If I intend to take this present transition, season, interval, or maybe the rest of life, seriously, then I need a plan.

      The first two things I thought of were very practical: (1) finish putting away my boxes of office stuff and make a workspace upstairs, stop waiting until I get busy enough that I need to do it; and (2) finish the painting we never got around to because we were too busy stumbling through 2020.

      That’s a good start.

“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32