Write His Answer

Deadlines! When I worked in an editorial office years ago, the race to meet deadlines was exciting. Of course, no sooner had one deadline been met then there were others looming, but I found that exhilarating rather than stressful. Oh to be young again and to be able to “leap tall buildings” (and meet deadlines) “in a single bound.”

Today I’m older (no kidding!) and hopefully wiser. Deadlines are no longer exciting even though I have a computer (actually two) to supposedly make me more productive and efficient. Sadly, I often find that working with computers adds more stress to the work Father has called me to do. I don’t have patience for the learning curve that comes with new software or the unexpected challenges of installing a new computer with a different operating system.

Like me you probably have a love/hate relationship with your computer. You wonder why, especially when you’re pressed for time, your computer crashes along with the latest unsaved copy of what you were working on.

What do you do when time pressures keep building and you have no control over the obstacles that keep slowing you down?

That’s where I’ve been for the last two weeks with trying to convert my old FrontPage conference website to Expression Web. I’ve written but am unable to upload the Teens Write and Lightbox Method Retreat info. The clinic and scholarship applications are also ready to go but can’t be uploaded. Other pages have a bunch of navigation buttons across the top but the pages appear blank. They aren’t. Scroll down. To say the least, I am frustrated! And daily I’m falling behind where I need to be with work not just for the Colorado conference but for the Greater Philly conference August 1-4.

I’m reminded of PBPWMGIFWMY from Bill Gothard’s Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar. “Please be patient with me, God isn’t finished with me yet.”

If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t yet answered, please be patient. If you’ve tried to access conference info online, please be patient. If you’ve registered and are worried about signing up for your appointments, relax. Appointments are booked in the order that you register for the conference – not in the order that you send us your requests on the form that is not yet available. And if you’ve not yet registered for the conference, the good news is that there still are 26 more openings for a free fifth appointment if you register for all three days.

But the best good news in the midst of the deadlines we all face is that Immanuel, God is with us. “Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, he remains faithful to us and will help us, for he cannot disown us who are part of himself, and he will always carry out his promises to us” (2 Tim. 2:13 TLB). He calls us, He calls me, to come to Him and He will give us rest (Matt 11:28).

Father, thank You that You are with us and that we can trust You to give us Your peace that passes understanding when deadlines press in on us that we feel helpless to meet. Thank You for Your promise that the joy of the Lord will be our strength!