⁶ Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. ⁷ This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” ⁹ Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s house. ¹⁰ In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly. ¹¹ And she made a vow, saying, “LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” ¹² As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk ¹⁴ and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” ¹⁵ “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.

–1 Samuel 1.6-15 (NIV)

¹ In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ² until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³ After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁶ Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

–Acts 1.1-8 (NIV)

One of the things that can drive us nuts (or even to despair) in our relationship with God is having to wait on his timing. We see this illustrated in both passages from today’s lessons. Let’s face it. It takes great trust to wait on God to give us what we need so that we can be his Kingdom workers. Much as we might like, God simply does not include us in on the joke entirely. He gives us what we need and are able to handle.

In Hannah’s case above, God used her great grief and agony over being a barren woman to prepare her to raise her future son, Samuel, in the manner that God apparently wanted. Had Hannah been a prolifically fertile woman (a sign of God’s great honor and blessing), she likely would not have made a vow to raise Samuel as a Nazarite. But Hannah had the faith and humility to persist in prayer and God equipped her in his good time to do the work he called her to do–in this case bear a son and raise him in a way that made him suitable for God’s service as his prophet.

In our NT lesson today, we see something similar. Have you ever wondered what changed the 11 apostles into bold and courageous men? Prior to where our story picks up today, they had been sniveling cowards who had deserted their Master in this greatest hour of need. What changed for them? As John tells us in his Gospel in the Farewell Discourses and as Luke implies in today’s passage, the disciples were not ready and able to hear all that Jesus had to tell them when he lived with them as a mortal. He had to spend time with them and teach them. They had to undergo to shock of his arrest and crucifixion, and their eyes had to be opened to his risen Presence where he could teach them further. It’s that old developmental thingy, but many of us want the prize now and we grow impatient if we have to wait for it.

All this took time and God had to prepare them gradually to fulfill his plan for them–to make disciples of all people, even to the ends of the earth. This was a massive task and had God presented his eternal plan to them all at once, they likely would have been overwhelmed and not answered Jesus call to them. After all, who feels equipped to change the world? Indeed, Matthew alludes to this very dynamic in his account of Jesus’ Ascension when he tells us that while Jesus’ followers rejoiced at seeing him, some doubted. The Greek for doubt can also mean to hesitate or be reluctant. If you were convinced God was calling you to do a task for which you felt unprepared, how willing would you be to answer the call? Me neither.

What both of these stories remind us is this. God is God and we are not. God has an eternal plan for us and our lives, a plan that existed before we were ever born, and each one of us is confronted with a choice. Do we believe in God’s power and good plans? Do we trust God enough to let him prepare us for the work he calls us to do? We won’t if we are not humble enough and/or do not know God well enough to let him use the events of our lives as well as our hurts and victories to prepare us for the work he calls us. But when we know (not know about, but know) God intimately through Christ and are willing to let God be God while we acknowledge that we are his creatures, good things can and do happen, even out of terribly bad things.

For example, I have a friend whose wife of many years has developed Alzheimer’s disease. It has effectively taken his wife from him and has been devastating to him and his family. How can God possibly use something as terrible as this to prepare my friend to be his Kingdom worker? Let me be clear. I don’t know what God has in store for my friend but one possible scenario is that God may be preparing my friend to minister to other spouses of Alzheimer victims. My friend has all the prerequisite tools to do this and unfortunately he knows first-hand the devastating consequences of this evil disease. If he listens to God’s voice and hears God calling him to minister to other hurting spouses, then God will likely use my friend’s terrible hurt to bring God’s love to bear on others who need it. In doing so, God will also bring comfort and peace to my friend because as Jesus reminded us, we find ourselves by losing ourselves. This couldn’t happen all at once, but it can happen in God’s time. Again, I don’t know if this is what God has in store for my friend but it is a possibility and illustrates how God needs to prepare us gradually and over time to do the work he calls us to do of bringing Christ’s love to bear on those who desperately need it.

None of this is comforting if we are trying to be the captain of our own ship. But in the final analysis, this is just a delusion because none of us has the power to captain the ship of our life. So the question becomes, what resources will we draw on to help us weather and even transcend the storms of our life? When we allow God to be that resource and have the patience, trust, and humility to let him prepare us for whatever he is calling us to do, we will find the key to living a happy, peaceful, and meaningful life. Why? Because we know that God will take even the worst things of our life and turn them into good if we will but let him and cooperate with him.

Are you ready for that kind of trust and faith?