Hibernating

"I remember now why I left New York," I mumbled, sprawled on the icy driveway rubbing my sore hip.
I had mumbled similar thoughts for the past hour as I chipped away the sheet of ice from our treacherous driveway.
("You have used that word 'treacherous' four times today," Asherel told me later that evening.)

And I as I was splayed on the recliner later, a heating pad over my bruised muscles, rubbing my sore wrists, I decided winter is a season for young people. Of course, raking leaves is no picnic for back and arm muscles either, and I guess cutting the grass in the spring and summer takes its toll on ancient joints and lungs too.  I think it is possible I am crossing the bridge into wimpdom. My mom was running marathons at my age..... I dread to think what I will be like in a few years.

 And it is not even just that the spirit is willing but the body is weak. If I must be honest, the spirit is not all that willing. Chipping icy driveways and falling on cold hard concrete is just not as riveting as settling down with a cup of tea and a good book. I used to be a bundle of energy, but I am becoming lazy.

As I was moaning and settling into the warm recliner, I read an article about the overdriven aspect of modern life. Everything is competitive to the point where students of educational institutions that once used to center on the joy of learning for the sake of being well-learned now center on cramming whatever facts they need into their bursting brains to get the best grade and best job and best house on the block by beating out all the other students. A spirit of communal joy in knowledge and cooperation has been replaced by cut throat competition. The author pointed out in counterpoint that "Lions sleep 20 hours a day."

I thought about that. I don't know what to do about the competitive nature of education, so went straight to thinking about the lazy lion. Why would God have designed a creature that only really lived for 4 hours a day? For that matter, there are tiny frogs in the Sahara that will sometimes burrow for years until a good rainstorm finally shows up. Then they pop out of the ground like pimples on a teenager and start racing around to eat, mate, and hop. As soon as the rain ends, they head back to burrow their life away. And some frogs hibernate in the winter and their bodies, which possess a natural antifreeze slow down so they can last all winter long without needing to kiss a single princess. Some can even withstand their bodies being frozen solid and still thaw out alive in the spring!  My tired mind meandered on pondering these strange facts. For someone who knows all creation points to the Creator, I had to wonder, "Why?"  Why would God create creatures who only reached the potential of liondom, or frogdom for such brief flickers of time? It just didn't make sense to me.....

Except, I realized, in the monumental and everpresent lesson of patience and perseverance. If anything can teach us about that, it is the lion and the Sahara frog. So much of life is spent learning how to wait and while waiting, learning how not to despair.  For example, after six full months of waiting for my book proposal to be read by the agent I am hanging my hopes on, she just wrote to tell me she lost it! (I wrote about this in an earlier blog post.) Then she said if I would resend it, she would read it by Friday....this past Friday. I know all of you who like the lazy lion sleep 20 hours a day while waiting for news about my life were wondering when Friday came and went, why I didn't mention what she said about my book. Well, Friday came and went with no word from her.  I agonized about whether I should bug her, or just wait patiently and while waiting, what should I do? By Tuesday, I was sure that blood vessels were slowly exploding as I held my breath, so I finally broke down and wrote to her.

"I don't mean to bug you....well actually, truth be told, I do mean to bug you...." I wrote.
It turns out she was deathly ill, and ordered to bed and rest for a solid week. She had not forgotten me. She gave no timeline this time on when she would read my proposal and I realized, I must look to the Sahara frog as my guide, and hunker down for perhaps another long season of drought.

I think one of the best Biblical examples of expectant, faithful waiting is Noah. Noah was told to build that big boat, the Ark, in a land that had never seen rain, hundreds of miles from any water. For three years he built a boat while his neighbors all came and laughed at him. So he built and he waited.... and finally the rains came, and he definitely had the last laugh.

So this season of waiting, and resting, is not just a great cosmic flub. It is planned, and ordained, and even blessed! God is always preparing us for something. Sometimes it requires that we hunker down for a good long while, nursing aching joints, or flagging energy, waiting for His call to rain down on us, prompting us to hop into His arms in the fullness of life when to every onlooker, we seemed half dead.

Proverbs 8: 34-35
³⁴ Blessed are those who listen to me,
   watching daily at my doors,
   waiting at my doorway.
³⁵ For those who find me find life
   and receive favor from the LORD.