Oklahoma is OK! Yesterday, the neighbor noticed we were home and asked us if we're sad to be back. The reply was automatic. No! No, we are not sad to be back. This is where God has put us and we are content and will thrive and continue to make this "home" our "home". So no, we are not sad to be home.
Yet, having been back for almost a year, my thoughts turn toward what the year brought out in me. I was convinced that God would provide a house for my birthday ... in August. I was hopeful that God would surprise me with a house ... for Christmas. I was sure that a house would be ours before Austrian friends came to visit ... in May. I was pretty convinced we'd surely have a house by the time we visited Vienna ... in June. No house. So what do I do with my timetable?
Joshua led many teams on excursions that looked pretty horrible. They faced enemies that were really too big for them to fight on their own. The people of Isreal were small in number compared to the enemies that lived in spaces in the promised land that God said was theirs. Yet, battle after battle took them closer to obtaining a promise. For me, little wanderer that I am, it gives me hope and rock-solid confidence that each battle of doubt, each battle of "maybe this time", each battle of "is this the house", each battle of wanting so desperately to put up curtains on windows in a home that bears a title with my name on it ... is coming.
What trips me up is Time. Time leaves me doubting that God's word is only true measured by an estimated time table. Time leaves me wondering if God is really with me. Time makes me doubt His goodness. Time leaves me questioning that He will do what I heard Him say. I don't want Time to have this effect on me, but there is a tiny thread of wrong believing that creeps into my mind the longer Time does not produce what I know God has promised.
You see, long before we moved across the ocean, we were sure. We were sure God had called us to move to Oklahoma. We were sure that God would provide for our needs. We were sure God would also provide a house. How do we know? Our Spirits knew. We were at peace. Others confirmed. He gave us scripture to affirm what we sensed in our hearts. Just like Isreal walking in borrowed territory to claim their own possession we knew God was giving us a "home".
This morning, a year after moving, I am at peace. What God has taught my heart is that He keeps His Word. He gives me new mercies every morning. For me, the mercy of reminding me I've heard Him and He will deliver ... on His timetable ... keeps me going another day. Hope is cumulative. One day builds on another. Each day I see God's faithfulness, His kindness to remind me He is near, gives me spiritual fuel to keep going ... to keep believing.
Today I'm all fueled up. My house awaits in His time. So ... O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, Oklahoma, OK!
