My friend wrote a beautiful blog post recently about a gem she found in Leviticus 25. God commanded that the promised land itself be given a Sabbath every seven years, when the people would not be allowed to sow, reap, or even gather what grows of itself. Just take a moment to ponder the implications! No food in the seventh year, but then no food in the eighth year either, because they wouldn’t have sown in the seventh, and then after sowing in the eighth, still no food until the harvest in the ninth year! But as my friend pointed out, Leviticus 25:21 also tells us that God had a plan: He promised such blessings in the sixth year that the land would produce a crop sufficient for three years! As my friend pointed out, God always prepares the way. I’d like to share from my own life how I have seen this principle at work.
Two and a half years ago, I went through the most earth-shattering experience of my life. My husband of 20 years, pastor for the last 10, was arrested because he had attempted to solicit a prostitute who turned out to be an undercover cop. I found out about it—and the church where he was pastoring found out about it—and the internet found out about it—all in the same dreadful weekend. Life was turned upside down in an instant, and ugly truths kept tumbling out; it turned out that the incident that had prompted the arrest was only part of a decades-long pattern of deception and bondage. He was forced to step down as pastor (thank God!) and we embarked on the path towards separation and now divorce.
As you can imagine, I felt much like the Israelites must have felt, wondering, “What shall I eat?” and so many other questions. I cannot possibly overstate the anxiety of those first months. And yet, God met every need. I soon realized that He had prepared the way before me, putting safety nets in place that He knew I would need, so they were there when I needed them the most.
First, several months before the arrest, my clinician at my holistic health center retired in order to become a foster mother. Since I have a history of health issues that forced me into a wheelchair at one point, it’s important for me to take care of my body, and so when they considered passing my case to a brand new clinician, I asked if someone with more experience was available. The senior clinician looked at my file, said that she had tools in her arsenal that could help me greatly, and promised to take my case at the billing rate of my previous clinician, even though it was half her normal fee! Indeed, my health improved in leaps and bounds under her care, and that was important since I would be shoveling snow and performing a myriad of other new physical tasks due to the separation. What a contrast, considering that I had previously not been able to walk across a room without leaning my weight on my husband’s hands!
Secondly, several months before the arrest, an old friend had said that God had laid it on her heart to pray for me. She said that her children were growing and becoming more independent in their homeschooling, and she wanted to spend an hour each week just talking on the phone and praying for one another. When the catastrophe hit, prayer time with her was a lifeline already built into our schedules!
Thirdly, several months before the arrest, I had begun to receive counseling from a Christian counselor. I had shared with my best friend some recent flashbacks to incidents that had occurred 18 years previously, and she had insisted that I set up time with the counselor, and that she would foot the bill! (We were living like paupers because all of our family finances were going towards strip clubs at the time, only I didn’t know it. I thought we were “suffering” for the sake of the Gospel!) So when the catastrophe hit, my regular counseling appointments simply shifted focus into triage mode, dealing with the issues I was facing during my transitions.
The last way in which the Lord prepared the way before me was the most unexpected, because on first appearance, it looked like death to me: six months before the arrest, I was uprooted from my hometown of 40 years, my family, my friends, my doctors, my church, my homeschooling community (and passionate calling), my support systems…all because my husband insisted on taking a pastoral job in a town two hours away, even though the children and I privately begged and pleaded against it. After the forced move, I felt abandoned by God. It was the darkest spiritual time of my life. And yet, what looked like death was actually God preparing the soil for new life. In fact, the place of my pain has become the place of my blessing. York (my new hometown) is where God provided networks and resources that would be vitally important to sustain the children and me in our new life, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Living in York is part of how we keep afloat financially (well, almost) and still homeschool; we live in York where the expenses are lower and I work in Philly where the income is higher. York is where I met my pastor, an insightful counselor who has a huge heart for abused women (into which category I hadn’t realized I fit), and an entire church that cares for the widow and the orphan in such practical ways. Since this church has a heart for expanding ministry to other women like me, I hope to be involved in encouraging other sisters through this ministry someday!
I could list other ways in which God clearly was preparing the path before me for the road He knew I would need to walk as a suddenly single mom. So much of the preparation didn’t even look like God’s provision at first! And yet He knew exactly what He was doing.
If I remember my Old Testament history correctly, I believe one reason the Lord cited as a grievance against His people for which He sent them into captivity and exile in Babylon was disobedience of this very Scripture passage: they never did give the land its Sabbath or keep the year of Jubilee. Ah, yes! Here in Leviticus 26:34-35 the Lord warns them what He will do if they disobey, and then here in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 the awful promise comes true. I think it’s recorded elsewhere as well. I can’t say I blame the people; I can’t imagine how much faith it would take to obey that command to give the land a Sabbath every seven years. It must have sounded like sheer crazy talk! Yet how much more foolish is it to disobey the Lord than to trust Him even when it seems like what He is calling us to do is foolish.
Thank you, my friend, for pointing out this precious gem in Leviticus 25! Thank you for the reminder that the Lord takes care of us and goes before us preparing the way. He always keeps His promises; therefore, we can trust Him and not fear. So now, this gives me the confidence to shore up my faith and ask God to reveal to me where I am not trusting Him. What has God called me to do that feels foolish and unreasonable? God, help me to trust in You. You are sufficient. You are trustworthy. You’ve got this.
