Flood - The Path From Ruin to Renewal

Tuesday, October 20

Read Genesis 8:10-16a- 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark…”

Pause and put yourself in Noah’s boat. Noah didn’t have any windows, sure there was something on top that he eventually opens, but Noah, essentially was in the dark, waiting. But was he just waiting or was he waiting and trusting God?

Could Noah do anything to speed up the process? Could Noah insert “his” control to make something happen? Could Noah throw a fit because God wasn’t working on the same timeline as his?

I know it sounds ridiculous, especially cause Noah didn’t speak, so it would only be assumptions. Because I know that I have those rants with God, why? When? How long? I want control. But it should tell us there is something to learn in Noah’s waiting.

What God does in us while we wait is as important as what it is we’re waiting for. What that means biblically is that waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of renewal. While Noah was waiting, God was starting the renewal process; the olive branch is a clue. In the midst of the ruin, God was recreating, renewing while Noah waited. Which means when we wait God is renewing the ruin that is in us or around us, renewing who he created us to be. Can we trust God in the waiting?

There is a great story by Henri Nouwen in his book Sabbatical Journeys. He writes about some friends of his who were trapeze artists. They were with the circus, and their lives had an effect on him. They were called The Flying Roudellas. One thing they told Henri Nouwen is that there’s a very special relationship between the flyer and the catcher on the trapeze. The flyer is the one that lets go, and the catcher is the one that catches. As you might imagine, this relationship is important especially to the flyer. When the flyer is swinging high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when he must let go. He arcs out into the air, and his job is to remain as still as possible and to wait for the strong hands of the catcher to pluck him from the air. This trapeze artist told Nouwen, “The flyer must never try to catch the catcher.” The flyer must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him. But he must wait.

Some of you are in a vulnerable moment right now. You have let go of what it is God has called you to let go of, but you can’t feel God’s hand catching you yet. And you want to start flailing around. Will you wait in absolute trust? Will you be patient? Waiting requires patient trust.

How do you need to shift your impatience to waiting trust? What don’t you trust about God or his process that makes waiting difficult?

Take a little extra time, especially if waiting is hard for you and hold onto these promises in Psalms. Psalms 5:3, 27:14, 33:20, 37:7, 40:1, 130:5