Learning a new language can be frustrating and quite time-consuming. I remember going on a mission trip to Guatemala many years ago and trying to communicate with only a few Spanish words in my vocabulary. The mistakes I made brought belly laughs to those who spoke the language fluently. However, it was the dentist on our trip who won the prize for hilarity.
Day after day, the good doctor instructed his patients (in Spanish) to open their mouths wide. Only after seeing scores of men, women, and children, did one of our teenage boys who had studied Spanish finally translate what the doctor was actually saying. With a mouth mirror in one hand and a metal probe in the other, the dentist commanded, “Open your big mouth!” Thankfully, the patients all understood that the well-meaning dentist had just gotten his words turned a tad backward.
Spanish can be tricky to learn, yet our English language confounds most foreigners because so many of the same words can have totally opposite meanings. Take the word “anxious” for example. When I was a little girl, “anxious” was the feeling you got the night before your family went on vacation. Or waiting for daylight on Christmas morning. Or packing your suitcase early because you were going to your grandparents’ house. “Anxious” was looking forward to something so much that you couldn’t sleep because you could think of nothing else. Yes, back then “anxious” was a tremendously good feeling.
As the years rolled along, “anxious” morphed into its opposite meaning. At first, there were oral book reports and math tests, then finals, college exams, and job interviews. Anxiousness multiplied and thrived in the stress of difficult friendships, marriage, in-laws, kids, circumstances beyond our control, etc., etc., etc. “Anxious” was no longer a good feeling that painted the soul with the joy of anticipation. Instead, dreadful pressure increased the heart rate and splattered blue over every good thought.
Maybe you know that kind of anxious feeling right now. Even if you are a positive person, it’s not always easy to dismiss the many negative emotions that often swirl around your body, mind, and spirit. It’s easy to let fear get the best of us when we have no idea what lies ahead.
In the past few weeks, God has taught me something that has turned my thinking more than a tad backward. Nestled next to Him, I found the courage and desire to go back in my mind to all those places He had already helped me walk through. I remembered the wonderful things He taught me on the mountaintops and in the valleys. By sliding a few more inches closer to Jesus and resting in His presence, my anxious dread transformed into anxious childlike delight. I know for certain that “all my life He has been faithful, and He is so, so good.”
I have had a wonderful life, but not all my moments have been wonderful. Some have been pretty rotten, but with every heartache God has shown me more of who He is and what He can do. He continually offers us proof of His steadfast love. We only need to pay attention.
I recently read Isaiah 28, and the Spirit met me there in a gentle whisper. Please read this slowly, and then listen to what the Spirit whispers to your heart.
“Listen to me;
listen, and pay close attention.
Does a farmer always plow and never sow?
Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting?
Does he not finally plant his seeds—
black cumin, cumin, wheat, barley, and emmer wheat—
each in its proper way,
and each in its proper place?
The farmer knows just what to do,
for God has given him understanding.
A heavy sledge is never used to thresh black cumin;
rather, it is beaten with a light stick.
A threshing wheel is never rolled on cumin;
instead, it is beaten lightly with a flail.
Grain for bread is easily crushed,
so he doesn’t keep on pounding it.
He threshes it under the wheels of a cart,
but he doesn’t pulverize it.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher,
and he gives the farmer great wisdom.”
(Isaiah 28:23-29 NLT)
God knows when we need to pull up a few weeds from our past, so He plows our ground for us to help us see that need. He wants us to lavishly grow, so He plants just the right people in our lives to help us with that. Some of those people we view as blessings and others as curses, but they are all used to help us grow stronger.
God truly is a wonderful teacher filled with great wisdom! He has shown me that only He can completely do away with any anxiousness that tries to overwhelm me with fear. He can and will turn that kind of “anxious” into one that looks forward to the future with great anticipation. I am slowly learning to calm myself sitting next to Jesus and talking things through. I listen more intently to the Spirit’s whispers. And then … I sit back and watch God do His thing. Since He has already taught me so much, I know that He will continue to teach me many more wonderful things. “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all the wonderful things you have done.” (Psalm. 9:1 GNT) I trust that what He said long ago still translates into our hearts today:
“I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”
(Psalm 81:10 NIV)
