Locked in, hemmed in and waiting!

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It’s exciting to see something you have read about in a book with you own eyes. It is a “pinch me” moment!  I had one of those moments when I watched a canal boat make its way up a canal in Birmingham. I watched it go into a lock, waited as the water filled up bringing the boat up to the level of the next segment of the canal and watched as the lock at the other end opened to let the boat out.  Suddenly, what I had read made tremendous sense.  Waiting, being locked in, is part of the journey.

For a time, the canal boat is locked in.  It cannot go back, and it cannot go forward, it must wait for the water to lift it up or down depending on which way it is going.  Being “locked in” is not in our psyche though. We see being “locked in” as a negative, as a prison but if we are trusting God to lead us and guide us, being locked in is a ‘natural’ part of the plan. David caught this concept in Psalm 139:5 “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”.  He is musing on the whole idea that God is leading and directing his life. God knows everything about him and that he, David, cannot go anywhere without finding God’s love and presence there, around him – he is surrounded by God. God has hemmed him in. It is part of the plan!

There are seasons when circumstances, life “hems” us in. We are shutdown, shut out, or shut in and we find it a bewildering time – a loss of a job, the demands of small children, putting a career on hold, loneliness, change – what do we do? How do we passage this? We have a couple of options. We can fuss and fret, complain, moan, even try to “kick doors down” – I know, I have tried a few times or we can “relax”, turn our eyes towards God and trust He is here with us and learn to wait with hope. “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,…” (Psalm 130:5-6)

The boat is transitioning from one level to the next.  As it transitions it waits.  Waits in expectation, waits and prepares, waits and rests.  There is a rhythm about its journey.  In the waiting time, God is at work in our lives.  Like the hen sitting on the egg, waiting for the day that chick breaks through, we cannot see what is happening but if we stay with the process, “waiting” on God, the next phase, the new thing, the shell, the “lock” will open.

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,… Isaiah 40:31

I called out to the couple who were working the boat moving through the lock.  I asked if it was hard work and whether they got impatient.  They called back to me they had moved through 27 gates that day, yes it could be hard work, but they loved the journey, the slower passage of time – it’s worth it they shouted back.


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