I’ve been hearing Isaiah 43:19 quoted a lot during the past month or so of this pandemic. So I decided to invest some time re-reading it;
“Behold, I will do something new, now it
will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in
the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (NASB)
I’m reminded that the new
thing that God is doing often isn't always seen.
In fact, we're often looking in the wrong places, or have expectations that it will be like it was before.
If we’re perceptive enough, we’ll unearth that the ‘new thing’
takes the form of a ‘new way’ or a new path through difficult terrain. Perhaps
invoking the imagery of the path through the Red Sea. Only now it is reversed; not
a dry path through water but a water way (river) through
the desert. And water is metaphor for “life.”
What blots our ability to perceive the new thing?
As Isaiah would say later that God’s ways are not our
ways, perhaps it’s because we can’t see as far up the trail as we’re led to
believe. I’ve received countless affirmation in my life that the Spirit of God
is simultaneously with us and ahead of us. We just can’t see what new path is
being created. Is the Spirit out bushwhacking through the wilderness of a
pandemic and our only appropriate response is to stay put while the path is
being cleared? Jeremiah concurs that we might have to stand at the crossroads
and look.
Basically, stay put. Discern. Pray.
But by God do not move. Not yet.
Perhaps this is a time for staying put and allowing the Spirit to
work ahead and clear the path. If we say let the Spirit lead, then it means
just that. Sit still. Wait. Stay. What if that I the way for such a time as this.
Until the river of life emerges through the desert spaces of this pandemic, I’m
in no rush.
