Be strong and let your hearts take courage, All you who wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

The title of this blog comes from Psalm 31:24 .

In this Psalm, Kind David is basically complaining about his life. I can almost picture this as a conversation he was having with the Lord, aloud, pacing back and forth, arms flailing angrily as he retold each and every sordid detail to God. With whom else would he have been so awfully yet beautifully transparent with?

This is the fruit of an 18 year cave season with God. David boldly pours his heart out to the Lord. Yet all the complaining is almost outweighed by the praises and testimonies of God's faithfulness. For each account of wrongdoing, there is a counter line of thanks or praise. A remembrance, ringing loud and clear, entreating David's own soul to remember all the times he's been rescued, rerouted and redeemed. Crazy right?

What do courage, love and loyalty have in common? After much prayer, I see all three are byproducts of delay. There is something sobering about the fact that we are designed to linger. We are made to slow cook, if you will? Something in us longs to be completely known and to completely know, yet we find ourselves rushing that processes, which is designed to conform us into the image of Christ.

Just when I thought the delays in my life had no purpose other than agitation; God reminds me that there is power in the process, if I simply allow it to do so. I'm determined to see the fruit of my own cave life spring forth in this coming season! At the end of it all, I will see God, unveiled and full of infinite glory.