Now is not the Time

I was watching this video by Mike Winger, and at the very end he says:

Everything that you're seeing in your life right now, you're seeing from today. And you know when you look back at your life 10 years ago, you look at 10 years ago so much differently than you than you do now. Well, now you're in now. Now is the worst time to figure out what's going on now. Now, if you're going through hard times, hardships, difficult things, now is not the time to pretend you have the perspective of 10 years from now. But as Christians, our ultimate perspective will come in eternity. You'll be in glory and in great joy forever. That's when you will know what was going on today. That's when it will make more sense to you. Until then, you just walk in faith, you just trust in God, and you rest in him giving you that bedrock that keeps you from getting down too low.

This made me think immediately of Joshua 23:14

Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

Joshua 23:14 (NIV)

Joshua said this at the end of the Exodus ... a not-so-great time of 40 years of struggling for God's people on their way to a "Promised Land" they had never seen. It wasn't a great time in the history of God's people.

After the fact, Joshua says, "not one of all the good promises of the Lord your God gave you has failed." But in the fact, God's promises being fulfilled was not apparent at all.

It also reminds me of Jacob blessing Joseph in Genesis 48

The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,

the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,

Genesis 48:15

Here's a quick recap of what God being Jacob's shepherd looked like in the fact ...

• Jacob worked for his uncle, Laban, for 7 years dowry for his wife, Rachel

• Laban cheated him and gave him a different daughter named Leah. 7 years lost.

• Jacob worked another 7 years and finally got Rachel. Now he has two wives, one he actually wanted, and one he was tricked into marrying.

• Leah (the one he didn't choose) had sons; Rachel (the one he did) didn't (at first)

• Finally, Rachel has a son - Joseph

• Leah's 10 sons sell him as a slave and tell Jacob he was killed by a wild animal

• Then a famine hits

• Then Joseph saves his family and it all finally makes sense.

In the fact, do you think Jacob thought God was being a good shepherd? I doubt it. But after the fact, he had the pespective to see what had been going on all along. After the fact, Jacob says "The God who has been my shepherd all my life long." Not "The God who is my shepherd now." Not "The God who finally became my shepherd." But "The God who has been my shepherd all my life long."

Perspective.

Finally, 1 Peter 4:12-13

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12-13

Peter is telling us before the fact to rest in the knowledge that after the fact, what is happening in the fact, will have been worth it.

We are God's people. Today, we are in the fact. Today, let's not pretend we have the perspective needed to understand.

Today, even though we can't possibly understand, may we walk in faith, may we trust in God, may we rest in Him giving us that bedrock that keeps us from getting down too low.

He truly is a good shepherd! If only we could see it now!