A View from the Zoo: part 1

One of my favorite books is called A View from the Zoo. I recommend it to anyone who is struggling with their devotional life or going through a dark season of life. The content of the book is straight forward and simple, far from the tomes that I had to read in seminary, with contents that bring home the nitty gritty of life. Each vignette in the book talks about a trial or adversity that plays out within the inter workings of everyday zoo life, but the stories always end with a view of God's faithfulness steadily unfolding behind the scenes.

While this book was one of my childhood favorites, it came to my mind this week for two reasons. The first was our second trip to the Fort Worth zoo. Wednesday K took the day off and I took a break from job hunting. We went on half-price admission day, imagine that!

Luke lasted through the primates, probably because we had kept telling him all week that we were going to leave him with the "howler" monkeys. For you who have never been to the Fort Worth zoo, the primates are the first exhibit. This was actually an improvement from the year before when we weren't even sure that he noticed the animals. Free advice, never take a one year old to the zoo! K, being 37 weeks pregnant, lasted to the pachyderms, the second exhibit. Here the reader should be reminded that this is not a name for my wife, but the technical term for elephants and there should be no association between the two. I lasted to the lions and at this point the 105 degree heat combined with the Jack-Daniels bbq sunflower seeds had us heading for civilization.

Fortunately, the trip was declared a marvelous success by all. As we road home I thanked God for this small victory. It was needed! The second reason that I thought of A View from the Zoo is because it has been three months since I jumped out of the crucible of seminary into the fire of life and I have been thinking a lot about God's sovereignty. Physically, I had been gearing up for this transition from seminary since last September when I had begun to think about graduation in May. This was followed by the compolation of my resume, philosophies of ministries, and strategizing about job hunting (Nov-Jan) and then by the job hunt (Feb). Mentally, I had braced myself. Not for God's directive (calling) or even his provision (though a continual temptation) as my confidence in these areas has grown over the last four and a half years, but instead I was bracing myself for God's timing. God knows me better than I know myself, and we we both know that I enjoy control. Hence the bracing! In a positive light control is known as structure, order, predictability, consistency, etc. . . in the negative control is my own perceived divine right to rule over the affairs and circumstances of my life, how American!

The majority of time and situations in my life I have felt like I have control (merely a feeling!), but then there has been the minority of times which have consistently traversed my life...being a "late bloomer," being turned down for an RA position twice, dating K, watching my hairline recede, unemployment early on during marriage, the close of the door to dental school, heading to seminary, trying to get pregnant. In all of these citations I have seen God work for the good, but in the midst of the fray, I have never enjoy the timing. Well, it has been four years and it felt to me that God had been long over do. God's consistently refuses to operate on my time table in major life events. I should share at this point that I do want God to work in my life and I don't want to run (pointless) or wrestle (think Jacob) because I have done both and been completely miserable. I hope that I have matured from my past encounters with the Almighty. Yet, the time was ripe and launching from seminary was definitely a major life event and we all know that I still had more to learn about waiting, like learning to enjoy God's timing, so I scrambled to brace myself for the impending onslaught.

As always I was not able to pick the field of battle or foresee His plan of attack...