The One About the Dangers of Dog Walking, the Power of Interruptions, and the Sickness of a Hope Deferred
Dear West Family
One of my favorite Proverbs can be found in Proverbs 13:12. It says simply,
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
- Pr 13:12 (ESV)
I have needed it as a reminder this week. You see, I like plans. I like to plan my weeks out in advance and adjust my calendar accordingly until I have weeks of utmost productivity laid out. In these (purely theoretical) perfect weeks I work out daily, have time to read old books, am an attentive and loving friend, a present pastor, and a doting and disciplined family man. Every week I plan and prepare for it, but then every week tends to get interrupted by some … stuff … life stuff … annoying stuff, that gets in the way of my perfect plan for my best life. And so I grit my teeth and get through it and then plan again for next week.
Next week is going to be awesome. I am going to be so shredded. Nothing can get in the way of my plan. Except, well, life and stuff.
This week was supposed to be one where I got to do lots of future oriented work. I don’t have a sermon to prepare for this Sunday and my calendar was well protected for some unhurried thinking, dreaming, praying and writing time. But then, life interrupted.
My precious mother, who is currently living with us while they are building a home in Georgetown, lovingly took the dogs for a walk on Tuesday evening, while Sue and I were out celebrating a good friend’s birthday. What a great plan! Right? Except, well … life. At some point, our dogs got into an overly enthusiastic greeting with some other dogs, and my mom got pulled by the arm by our otherwise tremendously well behaved labrador, causing her to fall into the street. The result? Multiple fractures in her arm, a facial fracture above her right eye, an ER visit that lasted till 2:30am and now a surgery to put her very busted right arm back together. As I write this, my mom is in surgery, and we would so cherish your prayers for her.
Here’s the point. None of this was in the plan. It has been incredibly disruptive, not to mention painful for mum, but mainly disruptive for me. Can we keep this about me, please? We had plans for what it would look like to have grandparents in the house with us in this season. They were great plans. Then they all got interrupted. I was bemoaning this fact to the Lord late last night as another day of the week passed without me being able to accomplish any of the things that I planned to do. As I was tempted to revert to the deceitful comfort of simply resetting future plans for some sort of sanctified future version of my life, I felt the Spirit remind me of Proverbs 13.
Hope that is deferred makes the heart sick. Hope needs to be applied in the here and now to whatever it is that you face today, in the very present tense, in the immediacy of all of life’s interruptions. Living in the constant deferred hope of some form of sanctified self and world where I am who I hope to be and the world works as it should creates a constant, restless, longing that can make the heart grow sick.
What if your real life is simply the accumulation of all of the things that are happening right now? What if the interruptions we experience to our “real lives” are actually instances of our truest and realest life breaking into the deferred hope of our illusive perfections?
As I started to look at this latest interruption with that perspective, I got a whole new vision on the available mercies of what this situation brings to us.
I get to care for my mom as she has cared for me so many times. I get to watch my dad care for my mom with humility, faithfulness and grace. My kids get to care for their nana which allows them to lift their eyes off of the intense pressure of self in their sweet little lives. What grace! What gifts these are if only I am able to apply the hope of faith that God is with us in the midst of our messy lives, and that none of these interruptions are interruptions to His plan to conform us into the image and likeness of His Son. He isn’t surprised. He is present not just in the future of a fulfilled plan, but in the messiness of life’s painful and frustrating disruptions.
So, go face whatever today throws at you, with hope. Don’t defer. Live today with everything you can.
I am off to take the dogs to a military style (hopefully) training school.
One more thing. The music this week is from our very own Jimmy McNeal. If you haven’t heard his first new single, then you really must check it out below. His second single launches tomorrow! I am so proud of him. This music sounds like a collision of his very bright future and his incredibly formative past. It is magnificent, and sounds like nothing else out there.
Jimmy McNeal | A Little While Longer | Lyric Video
See you Sunday,
Ross
