Day 05 - Prayers Please

Things have not been easy here at all, because, quite frankly, it's been too easy. I arrived here on Monday (Memorial Day) and submitted a request for a Solicitor's Permit on Tuesday morning. They informed me that it would be ready on Wednesday. It is now Friday, and the person in charge of preparing it has gone home for the day (at 1PM) and left nothing behind, so I have not been able to do much work at all. Preparing surveys, studying maps, and scouting the area are profitable, but it does little good when I'll have no chance to survey this weekend at all.

Even so, I know that God is in control, and I've trusted that he's given me this down time for a reason. I've enjoyed greatly studying his word over the last few days and have derived a lot of applicable truth. Paul details a confrontation that he has with Peter in the second chapter of Galatians. God as enabled my attempting to translate and study those passages in depth and in context and he has shown me a lot of things relevant even to my current situation -- the foremost is that I cannot lose focus on why he has brought me here: his glory. Thus, even though I cannot do exactly what my supervisor or I would like, I have a chance to praise him with my actions, doing everything as if it were done unto the Lord.

Mary, after learning of Jesus' conception, travels to visit her barren cousin Elizabeth, who is also with child. That blessed child, indwelt by the Spirit in the womb (a beautiful picture of God's sovereign grace) leaps for joy even there in the presence of his Lord. The young Mary then worships the Lord in song. Certainly she's in a difficult situation -- one far more difficult than the one I find myself in -- with an unborn child (I assume from the whiny women in my life that pregnancy is stressful) who also happens to be God and who also happens to have been conceived shortly before she was to marry. Yet all of these worldly worries melt away as she considers and sings of the glory of the Lord, a song that has come to be known as the Magnificat. Throughout this timeless song of praise she dots theology here and there, reciting to the Lord who he is so that he would receive glory.

I hope that this would be my attitude in this situation. I should remember the Lord and his mercies and his past goodness and grace toward me, which are essentially a promise of the grace and mercy to come. I ought to turn my worry to worship and my anxiety to praise. I know this on an intellectual level, and as I struggle to practice it, I covet your prayers. Prayer for the permits to come through would also be beneficial, I'm certain. As it is, I'm thankful for the God that brought me here and has plans for me to bring about his glory in Illinois, for the kind family that's taken me in as one of their own, and the 65-70 degree weather (which ought to be fantastic surveying weather). Thanks for reading, and so long for now. I leave you with Mary's song, the Magnificat.

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Luke 1:47-55 (ESV)