May 24, 2011 – Numbers 14

First, something a little more fun to think about. God says everyone 20 and up will never see the promise land. How happy are you if your 19 years and 364 days old when God says that. And how upset are you if you had your 20th birthday yesterday. Just something to think about.

A little more on the reflective side, has there ever been something you think you were called to do, and you didn't do it, but down the road you decided that it you should've done it, then tried to do it, and it doesn't work out. That is what happens here with Israel. They're told to do something, they don't do it because they don't think they can, so they're told to do something else, they decide to try and do the first thing, that doesn't work for them. That is the funny thing about God's timing, and one of the things that we don't often realize or understand. God's will for us is not only the subject matter that we're supposed to do or that it things that were supposed to accomplish or the path were supposed to walk, it is also the timing in which we're supposed to do it. God's will for us wants us to do a certain thing at a certain time, and to not do that is to not follow His will. To feel called to do something and ignore it and move on with life in a different direction and then try to go back and do that later is not to follow God's call. You have to accept not only the call but the timing as well. I'm not sure that is talked about as much as the actual subject matter of a person's calling. If a person feels a calling to the priesthood but ignores it and becomes married then later on down the road wants to change his mind, it just doesn't work that way. And vice versa for Priest, it becomes very difficult to change that lifestyle or the vocation when you've taken a path. As for having communication with God and that relationship is so important because if you're not listening constantly not only may you miss the subject matter of his calling but the timing of that calling as well. It's like driving down the interstate. There's been a couple times recently where I've been driving down the interstate, haven't been focused on the signs on the streets and the off ramps and I've missed turns. I've had the go out of my way to get to where I was going. I knew where I was heading I was in the right car driving in the right direction but because I lost focus for 5 to 10 minutes I was heading in the wrong direction. That openness to God's call has to be there all the time. It can't be something that we turn off and on when we feel like it or when we're on retreat or when we're down on our luck. When we limit the time we communicate with God were going to miss what he has in store for us. Essentially we're going to miss the promised land he has made for us because we have chosen to do our own thing rather than go his way, and just like Israel when we decide we do want to try God's way, we may have to go along way around and spend that 40 years in the desert before get their because we didn't have the right timing, God's timing.