Just Wait

Just Wait

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait!"

"'Wait?', you say, wait!" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and am claiming your Word.

"My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to WAIT?
I'm needing a 'yes,' a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

"And Lord, you promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!"

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting. . . for what?"

He seemed then to kneel and His eyes wept with mine,
And he tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want -- but, you wouldn't know ME.

"You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint;
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

"You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of my Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save. . .(for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of my heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night.
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'
Yes, your dreams for your loved ones overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know ME.
And though oft may my answers seem terribly late,
My wisest of answers is still but to WAIT."

Be cunning as serpents and innocent as doves

Matthew 10:16
Luke 16:1-5

The phrase "Be Cunning as Serpents and innocent as doves" makes me think hard to really understand and comprehends completely. Honestly, I always suspect that I never fully understand it.

These few words are somehow always related together with the parable of Shrewd Manager. Found in different book of the NT, seemingly unrelated, yet when placed to each other together. They are aligned and behind both stories tells a story about a higher principle at play.

Innocent as dove is easy to understand, innocent means faultless, not the villain nor the victim, a person who is not at blame when judgement is met out. However, when it is paired with "cunning as a serpent", the sentences morph into something complicated. Two contrasting position, with opposite connotation. They opposes each other and makes the whole sentence hard to grasp immediately. How do I be cunning as a snake while innocent as a dove at the same time?

Cunningness is the ability to profit from a situation. The situation could be ad-hoc or manufactured by the person. He understands and is able to read human nature. The greedy, the frighten, the weak, the proud, the ambitious and use that these human desires to his advantage.

If someone is able to do that and yet not turn the situation to his personal advantage but changes it so that all parties emerges a better people. People who learnt something more about himself and from it, grows. Will that be as innocent as dove?

And in that light, the Shrewd Manager is able to understand human nature to reciprocate. He discounted the debtor payments, triggering the human nature to repay him even if the person may not like him.