Something For Nothing

Yesterday a man told an interesting story in Sunday School. He said a promotion opened up at his job and he wanted it. He prayed about it but because the Lord told him NO he didn't apply for it. Two subsequent promotions came along. He applied for both and was rejected for both. Time and discouragement passed, another promotion finally presented itself. He got it. His boss told him he got it because the new position required someone who had worked a certain length of time in his former position. Due to his NOT receiving the original promotion and being forced to stick around with the status quo he qualified for advancement.

He won because nothing happened for so long.

I recently learned a unique story about an ox on my great-great grandfather's handcart trek to Utah with other Danish immigrants in 1857.* The slowly starving company had been without meat for weeks. They were marching parallel to a United States military force of several thousand men sent to suppress a non-existent rebellion in Utah. The immigrants wearily pushed on one side of the Platte River, the military marched on the other side as "their weapons shone in the sun." The military had large trains of provisions; one of their heavily loaded wagons ran over and crushed the foot of a large, fat ox. The ox was left behind. The leader of the wagon train told the Danes they could have the ox because they "might need a little meat." The only problem was heavy items, including axes, had been forsaken in Florence, Nebraska prior to the commencement of the trek.

There was a butcher in the company but the ax he had was "of the lightest kind and the poor animal merely shook its head at the blows." Then a hunter with poor aim shot it through the nose. Finally, a "luckier Nimrod came and felled the animal with his shot and put an end to its suffering."

The pioneers were hungry. I'm sure they were praying for food. I'm sure they were praying for that ox. Yet when it arrived there was no easy way to kill and glean the meat notwithstanding the fact a butcher lay in their midst.

We have to be careful what we pray for. Like the man in Sunday School who prayed for a promotion but got NOT YET because more was needed we may similarly pray for an ox with grumbling tummies forgetting we have no butchering tools. Sometimes we pray for an ox when we need to first pray for an axe.

I wondered for years why I could not have a baby despite my never-ending sincere prayers. It occurred to me to start praying to become strong enough to carry a baby, to find solutions toward better physical health and pain management, and for divine aid in finding silver linings day after babyless day. If Archer had come five years ago I'm not sure I would have been able to enjoy the delicious morsel of heaven he is. I had not yet acquired the tools I needed for repeat motherhood.

God our Heavenly Father is the great cosmic controller. He is aware of every living thing, every moving part, and every detailed desire. He knows how to help each of us succeed; we just don't equate help with stalling. Proof of His love is sometimes suspended progress; He is merely keeping us in a holding pattern until it is time for Deliverance to land. 

When nothing is happening you can be sure something is still happening. 

*James Jens Dideriksen Mortensen was only 9 or 10 years old when he crossed the plains but he walked all thousand miles without help. Richard L. Jensen, translator, "By Handcart to Utah: The Account of C. C. A. Christensen," Nebraska History 66 (1985): 332-348 (Thank you, Aunt Carolyn, for all your help!)

This is a really cool collection of airports as seen by Google Earth. Ironically, the blog is called Holding Pattern.