Battle Lines: Ain’t Doing Nothin’
Sometimes my wife asks me what I’m doing. I blandly answer, “Nothin’.”
Nothing? At that very moment, I exhale and inhale, my lungs exchanging fresh oxygen for spent carbon dioxide and sending the blood back through my system again.
Nothing? My heart is beating as it has without stopping since the sixth week following my conception.
Nothing? My eyes, though staring toward some empty horizon, are processing what is in my line of sight, sending that information to my brain which in nanoseconds sorts out what may be a threat, what is worth a second look, and what ought to be disregarded. Much the same thing is happening with my hearing, as sound waves are processed in what is called the auditory cortex, and beyond my conscious thought, telling me to ignore a host of sounds, homing in on one or two others.
Nothing? While all this is happening, my digestive system is breaking down breakfast to make it usable for the rest of my body. The nervous system is giving me tons of feedback about shifting my sitting position, warming my hands, and kicking off my shoes. Meanwhile, a group of my muscles tells me to get up and do something because they need stretching. And this but scratches the surface of what is going on in my lethargic little body.
Nothing? Crawling up into the cranial cavity, the mind has all sorts of stuff happening. Besides the unconscious bits that are regulating the systems of my body, my thought process was kicked into high gear when my dear wife asked me, “What are you doing?” A series of questions shot through: Does she want to go somewhere? Is she going to ask me to do something? Is she going to start a conversation? Was she just asking out of interest? Should I have had a cleverer response? If I could have thought of the stuff I just listed above, I could have told her I was terribly busy even though I looked nearly comatose. In reality, I have a lot going on. Nothing, indeed. How could I say “nothin’?”
At any moment there is a lot going on, though it may not be on my mind or where I can see it. And not only that; it’s all important. If any of it stopped, I would stop. I would be done. Kaput.
In a much greater way, we sometimes think that God isn’t doing anything when He is very much at work. Just because we do not see it or take the time to consider it hardly means that something isn’t happening. Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Trust God in the hidden places to accomplish marvels you can’t imagine.