All of a sudden...

Shep here.  I remember Andrea telling me that God has two speeds at which he usually works-  sloooooowly and suddenly.  That little quip came to us through our dear friend Deana.  If you look back on your life you can probably identify many examples of each.  I remember the night I met Andrea.  I had no idea when I woke up that morning that I was going to meet my wife.  I remember the day Caroline was born...I did not go into the hospital expecting to see the mayhem that ensued.  Everything was fine- I was about to be a daddy, and then, suddenly, everything changed...in an instant, everything went black...

Since that time there has been this process going on- this slow, grinding process.  You may have heard the illustration about the sculptor who was renowned for his sculptures of horses.  One day while being interviewed in his studio before a raw block of wood, the interviewer asked, "How do you even get started with something like this?  All I see is a block of wood."

The sculptor calmly replied, "I guess I'm not real sure...I just start with a block of wood.  Then I take my hammer and chisel, and cut off everything that doesn't look like a horse."  That is the sort of painful process I am talking about.  For the past ten years God has been using our darling daughter (among other things) to help cut out everything that doesn't look like Jesus.  I wish I could tell you that the process was close to completion, but I'm afraid we are not even to the sanding stage yet.

The slooooooow process is ever before me.

But Thursday we were reminded of the suddenness of God.  Zeke and Ava were out playing with the neighbors.  Suddenly, the door flew open and in came Zeke, blood streaming out of both nostrils and his mouth, with his front left tooth knocked completely out.  He had done a faceplant on the sidewalk.  Now, this is not that big of a deal...he just lost a baby tooth.   But it really bothered me.  Just that morning I had seen his sweet smile.  Now, he's missing a tooth.  It just happened.

Kind of like the time my brother and I were heading back to our apartment in our beautiful '72 corvette.  I saw a flash of motion out of the corner of my eye and in an instant, my world turned to glass and noise and blood.  Some lady had gotten out of her car and failed to put it in park.  It rolled down the hill, crashed into our car and knocked us into the other lane of traffic where we were struck by an oncoming car.  They had to cut us out of that mass of twisted metal and fiberglass and carry us via ambulance to the nearest hospital.  One minute I was thinking about what I was going to do that evening.  The next minute I was counting the lights on the ceiling of an ambulance.

Now I don't mean to sound morose...far from it.  I just think that it might do us some good to remember that as neatly as we craft our little world, as much as we think we are in control, as many safeguards as we put in place to insulate our own little fiefdom- there are things at work which we cannot control.

The Bible is full of examples- Abraham spent no less than 25 years wandering through the desert, then suddenly God's promise was fulfilled and he was a daddy.  Joseph's life was marked by this.  One day he was considering his dreams of ruling over his brothers...then he found himself at the bottom of a well...then over time he was elevated to a position of prominence in Pharaoh's house...then suddenly he was thrown into prison where he stayed for somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 years, then, with no warning, on the day God had set, the doors flung open and he was back in the chips again.  You see...sloooooowly and suddenly.

In the new testament, the writers warn us about this repeatedly... We are told that no man knows the day or the hour of Jesus' return, that it will come suddenly as a thief in the night, and that we will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye.  We stay here, laboring for the master and then one day all will change...

So what do we do with this?  I suggest as James did, that we "redeem the time, for the days are evil."  Do you have someone to forgive?  Well, forgive them.  Do you have something to do?  Well do it.  Is there a person who needs your help?  Well help them.  You just never know when the process is going to come to a screeching halt.

And in the meantime, be on the lookout.  You might just walk into a pizza place one night and meet this unbelievable woman that changes your life forever, that makes you want to be better than you are, that shows you what it means to live, and love.  All of a sudden...