GOD'S PROCESS... NO SHORTCUTS!!!

I've talked a lot about my 4 year experience in University; the good, the bad and the ugly... And I do not think I can ever really exhaust every little thing I learnt through that period.

One of the most amazing things that I got to appreciate is the beauty of seeing a building from being a mere thought to an actual structure. I was taught the intricate details of getting from an idea, putting it down on paper, getting the most workable and feasible dimensions and structural details, understanding all the details included on a huge bunch of papers and that eventually becomes a building. That’s the beauty of being in the construction industry.

The drama however, is what happens between the paper and the actual structure. Having been there, it is one very big hullabaloo!! It is a combination of so many people doing various jobs to make the final structure happen. It is very easy to give up at this point of the construction… it can be frustrating; it can be a headache and a really tiring process.

Getting to study the life of Joseph a few weeks ago got me to realize how much our lives as Christians are just like the process of getting a building from being on a piece of paper to being an actual structure with people living in it.

Let’s imagine the beginning of his life being the start of a building where it’s just a drawing on a piece of paper… Joseph had an idea of exactly how things would go, and God did reveal it to him in a dream. In theory, he knew that he would be great enough for his family to bow down to him… But he had no idea the process that was going to get things to that point. Joseph had to be sold as a slave, he had to live in a prison, and he had to be forgotten for him to be finally lifted up.

The big beautiful building in Joseph’s life is when he stands as the next in command to the Egyptian king and his whole family bows down in honor of him.

And at the end of it all, Joseph was wise enough to realize that it was all within the master plan that God had for him. You realize his brothers never saw the bigger picture and they wanted to ask for forgiveness from him. But Joseph’s response is the perfect picture of a young man who understood God’s process of getting him to where he was.

"Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Genesis 50:19-20

Another character that clearly had to go through a very hard process for God’s final plan to be revealed was Lazarus.

I wonder what went through Lazarus’ mind as he slept on his sick bed, just waiting for his really good friend Jesus to come heal him. We can be very sure he believed that Jesus was able to heal him.

Yet this friend of his stayed 2 more days wherever he was and it was a 2 day journey to get to him.

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11:4

At that very moment, people would have been very hopeful that things were looking up… But Lazarus did end up in a grave!! How?? And to make it worse, for 4 days!!!!

When Jesus finally came, his friend had been in a grave 4 days and the sisters were only left saying “What if…” To them, Jesus was 4 days late.

But Jesus arrived, and he arrived right on time! And we all know how the rest of the story goes.

As I look at these two men, I realize that every Christian goes through a period of being prepared for an even bigger thing in their lives. I realize that even as I plan and prepare to get a wife in a few days time, I see how much God has taken me through periods of challenges, periods where I have felt like giving up and like I was all alone.

Planning a wedding has been one of those new challenges that I have never gone through, one that I never knew the details of, yet I was very sure that one day, I would have a wife. It has been a period of knowing that trust has to be practical enough for me to keep walking with my head held high and knowing that God has a perfect plan.

And don’t we all feel this way!?

Walking the life of a Christian is one of being ‘dead’ and alone like Lazarus was, one where we feel as though we are in a prison, where we have been forgotten by our friends and family like Joseph was.

But Christ reminds us that it does not end in death but by the son of God being glorified through these very situations.

I have made a commitment in m life that I will take whatever God throws my way with the most positive mentality I can have. If He takes me through, desperation, through imprisonment, through being forgotten like Joseph was... Ill take it. If in case God requires me to go through death to see His name glorified like Lazarus had to... Ill take it

As we go through the deserts in our lives, we should not remain at Christ’s side so as to understand the process he is taking us through. Just like the long process of getting a house from a piece of paper to a massive structure that will stand the times.

We need to allow God to take us through a process of getting our dreams, hopes and God’s will… etc off the plan on a piece of paper, and actualizing it in our lives. We can be sure it’s not a process that will be easy and a bed of roses and we’ll go through processes of being broken so as to be rebuilt and for God’s will to be fulfilled.

Be encouraged that God’s plan is not see you remain in your times of death, imprisonment, pain and despair… But that He takes you through a period of rebuilding to see you rise up from the ashes to the big and mighty plan that He has in store for your life.

Jesus is never too late, He'll come in right on time!