It was a Monday, and I was at a lady’s house who was having problems with bees—they were using her pool as a source of drinking water. The bigger problem, though, was that past her backyard fence was miles of desert and a mountain. I told her I would try to help her, but unfortunately, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. The bees could be anywhere, and the chance for success was very low.
And so, I combed the desert, all the way to the mountain, praying for God to guide me and show me where the bees were. But after looking for an hour, I gave up. It was impossible. And I went home.
Wednesday, I got another call for bees. When I pulled up to the house, I realized it was six houses down the street from the home I was at on Monday.
I explained the situation to this homeowner and told her how impossible it was—that I had already spent an hour looking in the desert Monday but that I was willing to try again.
And so, I began again, but this time I decided to go all the way up the mountain. It was full of jumping cactus, boulders, and other nasty bushes with thorns. It was incredibly hard to hike.
I decided to look at all the cacti for holes since that’s normally where the beehive would be. I zig-zagged the mountain for 40 minutes, continually talking with God, asking Him for success, asking Him what He wanted me to learn from this situation.
When I got to the last cactus at the top of the mountain, there were no holes in it … no beehive. I couldn’t go any further. I hadn’t brought any water, and I was completely exhausted. I hunched over to catch my breath, and when I looked down, I saw a bee fly underneath a huge boulder.
There was the hive.
God took me to the beehive. I can’t begin to tell you how difficult it was to find—looking for a hive on the side of a mountain when it could be anywhere. It was amazing. When I couldn’t go any further, it was OK because I didn’t need to. I had gone as far as God had wanted me to go.
I took a picture on that mountain and thought about how awesome God is. God’s not always going to give us what we want or help us find what we’re looking for, but His plan is always perfect.
During the course of the Spiritual Disciplines sermon series, we have all learned to trust God more, but let’s not forget that sanctification is an on going process. The series might be over, but let me encourage you to continue to use the disciplines to draw near to God.
God has given us these disciplines to experience Him in a more intimate way. Christianity is not about moralism, and it’s not boring. It’s an exciting relationship with the Creator of the Universe who cares deeply for us and loves us despite out shortcomings and failures. He wants us to love Him the best way we know how and to trust Him to guide us on the path that will bring Him the most glory.
So even though the sermon series is over, keep practicing the disciplines, church. We’ve still got a lot more climbing and praying to do.