Today's Devotional Thought
January 08, 2013 by Rachel Piferi
A New Thing
When my son came home from school yesterday, he said the words I have been waiting to hear since he started school, "Mom, I need to conduct a study. I need a research question, a hypothesis, and a study to test it."
Oh how this former researcher's heart began beating fast with excitement at the thought that it was time to do some research!!
We started throwing around ideas of what he would do his study on. Everyone in my family thought I was a bit too excited about his research project. And at one point, my son even told me that my research ideas were too, and I quote, "grand." I tried to explain to them the excitement of research and how we can test ideas and see what concepts are related to each other. And as I was getting more and more passionate about it all, I saw that I was quickly losing them. My son even jokingly said, "Slow down, professor."
The whole scene made me smile as I got to share one of my passions with them.
And then my daughter asked me, "Mom, do you miss it?"
"Miss what?" I asked her.
"Do you miss being a college professor and doing research and all that?" She replied.
I thought her question was interesting and before I could even really think, I had answered her. And the words that came out of my mouth were words from above. They were certainly words I believed, but when I said them, they even surprised me.
I said to her, "Sure I miss it. As you can see, I love this stuff. But God's doing a new thing and he has me doing something different now."
And as those words hung out there, I thought of Isaiah 43:19, See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Truth be told, I do miss being a college professor and researcher. And I really miss being a researcher at Johns Hopkins where ideas are fresh and minds are sharp and the research is so rich and exciting. In fact, even as I write this to you, I have a lump in my throat at how I can miss that environment (and my involvement in it) on some days.
But the truth of the matter is, God is doing something new. God had me in that environment for a period of time to grow and thrive and to really enjoy it. But he has a bigger plan which involves something new in the stage of my life. As much as I loved that stage of life, I love this one too. And I have been so blessed at the opportunities that God has given me to work for him now.
As I think about life, it seems to be always changing. And God's assignments for us change too. Each one of God's assignments is good and each one will be missed when he sends us to a new one. Oh how often Paul opened his letters to others with love and "missing" those he had been with previously. His individual assignments were ever changing and he kept moving forward to what God was doing next. Knowing that God always had a new, good thing for him.
If you are in a period of change in life or you are missing something from the past, please let the words of Isaiah penetrate your heart and delight in the new thing that the Lord is doing. While the old thing may have been good and you may miss it, rest in the new thing that God is doing and the pleasure in it. Focus on that new thing and how wonderful it is because God is in it.
December