Ever made a roux? I hadn't until recently when I jumped back into cooking because, well, because health and our future demanded I start paying attention and filling our bodies with nutrient dense foods. A traumatic brain injury and a stroke will cause you to take notice of things.
Today, as most Sunday afternoons, I was in the kitchen prepping for a busy week and making sure we had lunches for everyone going every-which-way throughout the week. One of the minors' favorites is "Easy and Comforting Ham And Potato Soup", which requires a roux to finish up the tasty soup.
I start to make the roux: waiting for the butter to melt, measuring in the flour, waiting for the flour to turn golden, whisking in milk, and then whisking, and whisking......and more whisking. Every time I make a roux, I'm sure that it's not going to thicken this time; it's taken far too long and it's just going to be a thin mess. All of a sudden, it's thick and ready to go in the soup; changing the sad looking watery potato and ham soup into a wonderfully, comforting pot of deliciousness to jar up for school lunches.
As I was whisking the roux today it reminded me of all the many times I've been waiting, doing what I was sure was the right thing, but nothing seemed to be happening. Waiting, anticipating, wondering, and more waiting for God to show me what the end result is. All of sudden it's there, the wait is complete, the work is complete, and I'm left wondering why on earth I doubted God and His process at all. Like the roux, watery and thin, I doubt that it's ever going to thicken. Then I turn around and the work that God has been doing is ready for it's next venture. Sometimes the venture is huge and sometimes it seems small. But regardless of my assessment on the subject, God is faithful and His timing is perfect.
I was recently reminded of God's timing and not my own while studying Acts. It's so easy to read Scripture and put our own timeline on things. A simple day or week from one chapter to another as we aimlessly read. But a little deeper study and spans of time start showing. In the second chapter of Acts when they are gathering together and Pentecost had arrived it had been fifty days since Passover and Christ's resurrection.
Five years after the beginning of God's Church, the Jewish religious rulers, including a guy named Saul, stone Stephen, creating the first martyr of the Church. Five years the Church had been growing and spreading throughout Jerusalem, while a mere eight chapters of Biblical truths, healings, and persecutions have been shared.
Persecution breaks out in large, Christians scatter and take God's Truth wherever they spread to. Saul is threatening Christians and heads out on a "Politically Sanctioned" vendetta, only to have God stop him in his tracks. He gets some hardcore discipleship and must have had an uphill battle of trying to persuade the Christians he wasn't there for their heads. In Acts 9:22-26 we surprisingly have THREE years that have passed in three short verses.
The rest of chapter nine, ten, and a good portion of eleven has the Apostles quite busy: Peter's seeing visions, Gentiles are seeing visions, God's laying out facts for the new church. But reading the Scripture without studying it, it's all in a simple blink.
End of chapter eleven and Barnabas heads out from Jerusalem to get Saul who's been up in Tarsus getting some serious discipling and bring him down to Antioch to spend a year discipling the church there. Six years Saul was being discipled. in Tarsus. Six years the church has been growing, learning, teaching. When Barnabas and Saul arrived back in Antioch they spent an entire year discipling the church there.
Three years later Barnabas and Saul head out on a Holy Spirit sanctioned, church approved Mission Trip. Halfway through the book of Acts and we've gobbled up almost two decades!
It's so easy to read and not realize the time that God is diligently setting up His Church. The patience He demonstrates as he works through the people as he brings things from a watery, sloppy pot of ingredients to a beautiful golden thick roux. The reminder that whatever we're going through and however long it may seem, God has a plan for us and if we just let him keep whisking the proper ingredients, the proper heat, for the proper time a fantastic finished product will appear.
So, I'll stop repeating, "just keep swimming..." to myself, and replace it with "just keep whisking."
