Building an ark when there is no rain.

For some reason we all seem to expect God to line things up for us so that we will have no struggle, no waiting. We think that the path before us will carry on. I suppose the problem we have is that we take the verse about the straight and narrow way, which is really a metaphor for our lives as Christians (meaning we live within the laws of God and do not follow the marching band of this world) and we think that means that a life planned out by God is going to be just that, straight, no curves, no speed bumps, no dark tunnels. Yet that is never the way it really is. There are always forests to navigate, mountains to climb, valleys to stumble through, and days upon days of expecting rain and instead having nothing but the hot desert sun beating down on us.
The Bible does not out right say that people mocked Noah, there is a verse that speaks on how they mocked God though.
The days of Noah are around us once again, and I feel God had called many of us to start building boats. Not literal boats mind you. We all have something God has put before us to do. We all have some sort of promise for our lives, a path that God has set before us, but to get to the end of that path you have to walk it. To literally get up everyday, pick up your walking stick and go.
I don’t know how many years your path will take before you see God’s promise, but one thing I’m sure of, you will have days of feeling like you are building a boat with no rain.
That’s the funny thing about paths, you walk and walk and just when you feel you can’t walk anymore you come out of the trees and see the brilliant waterfall you have longed for. Then you will cheer and whoop and dive in and drink heavily and rest. But you can’t get there if you never start walking.
God has put something for you in your life, a fulfillment to a dream, but you give up things when chasing a dream, especially if that dream is rooted in a calling from God. You never know what God will ask you to do or sacrifice, all you know is that one day He asked you to build an ark, and 99 years later you still haven’t seen a cloud in the sky. Then year 100 comes.
Don’t give up on day 99 of your journey and risk never seeing day 100.
He has a plan. You just have to teach yourself to trust Him.

Never disregard the grey hairs in your congregation. They have been the fire in the hearth for more years than you have been able to tie your own shoes.
Yes they can be trying. Yes they use outdated words. Yes they move slowly and remember things that happened before the Berlin wall fell. Who cares! They are are power house that you will only understand after they are gone. So love them now. Appreciate them now. Let them be part of things. It costs you little. We always talk about how Jesus loves children, but He also loves seniors. (Lets’ just be honest. He loves all of us.)
Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4

Someday you too will be the grey in your church. Hopefully you will have been as much of a force and as much of a blessing as the ones you are sighing about now.

Psalms 41:13 NIV
[13] Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

He really is. Everlasting I mean.
God has always been here. He’s always taken care of His people. We fall down. We mess up. He helps us and saves us. He isn’t swayed by the opinions of others. He isn’t down trodden by life. He’s God. Where we go, He goes. He is with us until the end of our days.

Take away:

God is always here and has always been here. He has seen it all and still loves us and saves us.