My Personal Allotment of Space and Time

At a recent event I was reminded of both the growing realization of science's failure to completely explain the universe and of God's choice to create us so that we can't be in two places at the same time. Only God Himself is completely above and beyond constraints of time and space. We are physically limited by the space-time continuum of the universe that we're embedded in. In that limitation however lies the special nature of God's creation. We are each unique. Although the paradigm of His salvation is universally invariant (I know, the mathematician is leaking through!), God's perfect will, direction, and work is unique to each individual, and substantially impacted by the imperfect circumstances that He allows us to live out our lives within.

In the different seasons of life, our responses must vary. In winter we dress differently from summer. Under financial hardship we (hopefully) spend differently. And in family "crises" we must assume new roles of ministry. We shouldn't be surprised or upset at the uniqueness of our current circumstances. Instead I should thank God that in His sovereignty He has laid out a task in His grand plan that is designed for no one else. Seeing that task and joyfully serving Him in it brings glory to our Lord and purpose to our life.

Yesterday the importance of Bible translation was highlighted for me. A crucial part of God's work. Although it is clearly not what every Christian is called to as a career, there are still so many ways that we can use the ordinary talents, gifts, and resources that we have to facilitate the availability of the Gospel in languages and cultures that we may never personally comprehend this side of heaven. It was a special treat to see my daughter begin to consider how God could use her.

Many years ago James Dobson wrote a book called "When God Doesn't Make Sense" (or something like that). I never actually read the book, but the basic idea is that in our limited capacity we can not reasonably expect to always be able to understand God's providence and sovereignty in all the details of our lives, especially while we're in the midst of "stuff". I think this is something that was lived out more completely in past generations, before we got so conditioned into thinking that we can heal every disease, take personal control of the direction of our lives, and basically do whatever we want. As the song says "When you can't see His hands, trust His heart". Although we can be encouraged by others' stories of faith and perseverance, God's character is ultimately revealed in His Word and in His personal dealings in our lives.

So. Why am I here at this exact point in time? Asking the right question is usually the first step to finding the right answer.