Whose Side Are You On?
I grew up singing a song in chapel at school entitled; “He Makes All Things Beautiful in His Time.” It’s a beautiful song giving me, and many others, hope to look beyond our present situations to have the courage in believing for a better turnout of events than our family of origin, our education, our own home churches and all the worldly wisdom and experiences we could set us up for.
If I’m being completely honest, I get a bit impatient in the middle of a situation when I think I’ve worked hard to do my part, while in the meantime it doesn’t appear to be adequate in another’s eyes or even my own. Those times seem to lack beauty. The book of Genesis in scripture tells the story of one of the first couples of our faith, Abram and Sarai (later known as Abraham and Sarah);
‘When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, “I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant between us and I’ll give you a huge family. “Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you; kings will issue from you. I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I’m giving you and your descendants this land where you’re now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I’ll be their God. God continued to Abraham, “And you: You will honor my covenant, you and your descendants, generation after generation. This is the covenant that you are to honor, the covenant that pulls in all your descendants. Abraham fell flat on his face. And then he laughed, thinking, “Can a hundred-year-old man father a son? And can Sarah, at ninety years, have a baby?” -Genesis 17:1-10, 17 MSG
The story of this, one of the first couples of our faith, includes a long meanwhile in their shared lifetime until they eventually see the full promise of God in their lives. The meanwhiles of our lives often lack apparent beauty as we seek to reconcile our unknown-ness of not knowing how God will specifically fulfill His promise to us.
A time in my life that seemingly lacked beauty was a required military course I took in Autumn 2018. Typically the students of this course are not told prior to arriving to the course, they will not be promoted to the next rank of service if they don’t pass the course.When it becomes evident an officer is struggling academically or if there is threat to their ability to remain in the course, there is a series of uncomfortable actions that quickly take place. Those actions are meant to preserve the possibility of completing the course and include a higher level of accountability with course instructors.
After one critical exam, I conferred with the senior instructor to confirm I was indeed on a true path to graduation while he determined what still might be required of me to arrive in good standing on graduation day. As we concluded, he attempted to encourage me by stating; “You’ll be okay Chaplain –God is on your side!”
Walking away from his office, I suddenly stopped in my tracks and exclaimed; “I just want to make certain I am on His side!” It was apparent that my answer stunned him. In addition, it revealed my personal theology inclusive of a Holy God, and being “no respecter of persons” and who allows “the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust (Romans 2:11, Matthew 5:45).”
It was pointed out to me recently, everywhere it reads meanwhile in the Bible, it points to a Holy God who is in the meanwhile with humanity. It is in our own meanwhiles we need to allow God’s Spirit to hold and stabilize us, not only in the present but for the days ahead, when nothing looks as we think it should or possibly what we worked or for what we hoped and prayed for.
On the day of the final oral exam, after completing an hour to give my best answers, I was told to wait outside the exam room until I was retrieved for the decision of my outcome. I remember being alone in that hallway and praying someone in that room would be willing to fight for me. Ultimately, I knew I needed my God to fight for me and that is exactly what I prayed for. Moments later the door opened and I was called back in for what seemed an unlikely outcome. The panel of course instructors congratulated me on a passing grade.
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him or her it is sin.” -James 4:17 (ESV)
If you think you might be working against God’s plan for yourself or someone else, this verse points out how you might be doing that and you could possibly not be on God’s side through neglect or action. No one gets it right every time. We all need a Savior and We all need redemption. Before Abraham And Sarah, God knew we too, would need to know there was someone who had our back no matter what. And not only our back but our face forward, each side of us and above and below. He knew we would face deep disappointment, in ourselves, each other. He knew we would be tempted to meddle in our own situations or allow our disappointment to meander our focus away from Him—or even worse—neglect our duty to stand by someone when we had the power to do so, to stand for what is right and decent and holy before God and others in our world.
My hope and prayer for all of us who may be struggling to trust God wholly for our current situation is that we may know Christ as both Conqueror as well as the One Who is Present in our Meanwhile, so we are spiritually empowered by His Holy Spirit to take action to do right when we know to do so. May we all step up to courageous acts of faith, courage, and justice while it is in our time and Christ’s Conquering power to do so in us, through us and in spite of us as we continue to step forward into the mission field He has already lovingly and strategically placed us in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Northway is a U.S. Army Chaplain to some of America's finest sons and daughters and their loved ones. She grew up in a small-ish California town with a passion for those away who found themselves far from home for the first time. She has been married to her college sweetheart for nearly three decades, and they have one young adult son in Bible college who makes her laugh so hard it sometimes hurts to breathe. She has a Masters Degree in Marriage & Family Counseling Psychology in addition to being a seminary graduate. She is a warm-weather girl currently stationed in breathtakingly beautiful Alaska, hence her Instagram name, @chillybeachchap.