Who Gets Out Your Splinters?

Hopefully, tomorrow I will leave for Nashville to attend the Call. I am excited to see what the Lord may do. I usually don't go for events like this, but for some reason I feel drawn. Maybe it's just me searching, or maybe it's the Lord pulling, or maybe it's both. I don't know, we'll see I guess. Yesterday and today I spent some time in Genesis 21, reading about the birth and first years of Isaac. Writing my thoughts out on this stuff sure does seem to help it stick in my own brain for some reason. Here goes:

• God's promise never waivered the slightest even through Abraham and Sarah's unbelief. I find a peace about that, but a frustration that I can't control God at all.
• God waited until there was no way, humanly possible, for a woman to conceive to give a son to Abraham and Sarah. Why? Punishment for their years of unbelief? Maybe, but I don't think so. To let them try all the "tricks" they could to get pregnant first? There's no point in that. You know, thinking through it, I wish it were for punishment, at least that way it would give us more if we just lived better than them. Man, we are thirsting to be in control aren't we? I think it's that God wanted absolutely NO ONE to receive any of the credit for His miracle. He wanted there to be absolutely no doubt as to His choosing the line of Abraham. (Not by works of righteousness, lest any man should boast is fitting here.)
• Sarah becomes angry at Ishmael for making fun of Isaac, and she wants Abraham to kick them out. "No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac." This sounds harsh, but Paul says in Galations 4: "Isn't it clear, friends, that you , like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael) harassed the child who came - empowered by the Spirit - from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn't it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: 'Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.' Isn't that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman."
• The matter gave great pain to Abraham. I'm sure that there was a huge part of Abraham that wanted let Ishmael stay, after all, he was Abraham's only son for so long, and the son that he thought would get the inheritance for just as long. It's got to be hard to commit so hard to one side and then have to not only change direction but to send away what was your crutch for so long. Sounds familiar in my life, when you compare the slave son vs. the free son you also get the old man vs. the new creation. I hate to let the old nature depart. It almost feels like death itself (which it is).
• For Abraham, God protected Hagar and Ishmael. Wow, that's interesting. God just wanted Abraham to turn away but God never stopped planning on staying by Ishmael's side. He even promises to make a great nation out of him as well.

Applications:

• Stop fighting to gain control over the Lord. His plans will not be put aside. Rest in that.
• Don't settle for the fact that everything true must have a human explanation.
• Be willing to let the slave son be taken away by the Lord.
• Don't be afraid to hurt. Tonight, Abbey and I pulled a HUGE splinter out of Anderson's toe. It was definitely one of the biggest splinters I've ever seen actually come out of someones skin. My point is, it wasn't painful for him to have the splinter in there. It went in just below the skin, but for a long stretch of his toe, just not deep. He could walk on it and was fine, but he wanted it out. He didn't start crying when I looked at it, but he went into hysterics when I pulled my pocketknife out. He would have felt better if he were in control of the knife instead of me, but any loving parent wouldn't let there child pick his own splinter out with a sharp pocket knife or a needle. We eventually had to move to a needle and his body was convulsing from the thought of that. The funny thing is it wasn't even hurting him. He was even admitting it. He said that he was just scared that it would start hurting. It never did hurt, but you would have thought that I was sawing his big toe to the bone the he was acting. Don't get me wrong, it was totally understandable from an eight year old, but I just thought, "Of course, it's not that most of cry because we are actually in pain, it's just that we are so afraid of it, the dread is just as bad if not worse." We protect ourselves emotionally from the threat/thought of pain at such at price that we will use drastic measures to ensure we are safe. Gossip is a great one. Alcohol is one. Tobacco is one. Oops. Trust is such a vast word. It can mean so little, or it can mean a lot. You see, Anderson would totally say that he completely trusts me. Sure, why wouldn't he? That is, until I have his toe in one hand and my knife in the other. What would it look like if he really (I mean REALLY) trusted me then? What would it look like if we REALLY trusted the Lord...not just for daily bread and forgiveness, but for pulling splinters out of places in our heart that we don't like anyone else to touch. Would we demand to hold His knife ourselves? We should encourage each other to trust the Lord more. Either He is in control or He is not. I think He is, I just want to believe it enough that I live like it.