A friend of mine wrote an article that is very encouraging when we feel that there is no strength or the hurt is too great to change our surroundings. That is when the patience needs to kick in…
Recently while at our home on the NC coast I came across this crab on the shore. One of his claws was injured, which prevented him from being able to move freely in any direction he would choose. His shell, seemed to have faired well in his most recent battle. I watched as he struggled to make his way back from the shore to the ocean. Finally he just stopped and waited. Before long the tide reached him and little by little, wave by wave I watched him go with the flow. As the water got deeper he was able to move his injured claw. Before long he had been taken so deep that I could no longer see him.
Like that crab, you may be walking around with a fresh injury. Your armor may all still be intact but your walk may be maimed. The result of your most recent battle. You may even be feeling like you didn’t fare so well. My friend I have news for you….if you have made it this far you are going to make it all the way to your destination. You just have to be still and know that he is God. When you’ve done all you know to do, then yes…you just stand (Ephesians 6:13). Standing takes patience. Helen Steiner Rice wrote: God teach me to be patient, teach me to go slow. Teach me how to wait on you when my way I don’t know.
We must wait on his (God’s) next wave to come and take us where we can’t get to by our own strength. Could it possibly be that the injury was allowed by God to cause us to fully depend on and trust in him. To know that only he can take us into the deep. The deeper places that he’s called us to can not be navigated alone. So we must wait and allow each wave, one by one, to take us to the place that he has destined for us. A place where the injury no longer affects us in a negative way. But instead reminds us of how much we needed him along the way.