Click, Wait

GCD Newsletter 28th September 2023

It was just a couple of seconds since I’d shot my wife, I pulled back the lever and took another shot. I’ve taken many photos of Anna over the years, but for the first time I had absolutely no idea how they looked. Not only were the photos stuck, immortalised in 35mm film inside of my camera, but I’d only found the fifty year old Rollei the day before, and had no idea whether it was any good or not. There’s a good chance that the photo—which I still haven’t seen—is completely out of focus or the first of many works of genius. The little camera in my pocket, if Schrödinger is to be believed, currently contains both of those possible eventualities.

I’ll need to be patient.

I wonder though, will I treasure it more than the 1786 photos I already have stored in my phone? Will the waiting and the anticipation, and the dwelling on it make it sweeter? Perhaps even forgetting what’s on the reel will make it more of a gift when it finally comes back from the developers? What if that waiting is good for me?

I’ve recently been reminded just how important it is to recognise that it won’t take months or years to see the full picture of what God is doing in my life. I won’t know until this life is over. The camera is not in my hands, but his, and I trust that his focus is always right, his aim sure, his perspective perfect, and his intention true. Sometimes the Lord shoots me, and it feels like it, but it is but a flash of God’s eternal plan making a mark on me, and working for God’s glory.

Patience doesn’t always mean that we’ll get what we’re waiting for. Patience often means waiting to see what God will do, and trusting him even if we miss it.

Grace and Peace,

Adsum Try Ravenhill is married to Anna and together they are passionate about seeing young men and women discipled within the context of the local church. You can find Adsum through his writing at The Raven’s Writing Desk and you can also find Adsum’s articles for GCD here.

Last Week at GCDiscipleship.com

What To Reveal for Authentic Storytelling: An Interview With Hannah Anderson
By Timarie Friesen With Hannah Anderson

I try to not write publicly about something while I’m in process—when an experience or thought is new or fresh. Writing is a wonderful way to work through things, and I highly recommend it as a means of understanding your own life. Publishing those thoughts and experiences while they’re still developing is another thing entirely.

Never Enough
By Bob Allen

It is natural to feel a growing sense of inadequacy. In fact, it is not only acceptable, but it might even be healthy for a heart to be filled with desperation about the state of things. If you can imagine, God wants us to feel this distaste for this life. Why? Because there is nothing in this world that can fill the hole in any man, woman, or child’s heart.

Nothing.

Why Write: To Avoid Pride & Love Our Neighbor (Part III Of III)
By Lara D’entremont

Writing can be wielded to serve ourselves—growing our own platform, lifting ourselves higher than our readers. In those times we must catch our feet ascending that stair and turn ourselves around, bringing ourselves even lower than our reader so that we can serve them from a place of humility and love.

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“My heart sings as I read Bob’s words. In this book he takes us beyond facile or formulaic articulations of the Christian life in which our performance always seems to slip in as the key ingredient to calm and joy. Instead Bob plunges our hearts into the deep and wondrous truths of the biblical gospel where Jesus and his grace for ongoing sinners is so real that our cynicism and hardness and discouragement don’t stand a chance! Thank you for helping me to repent, believe, and fight, Bob!”

Dane Ortlund, author of Gentle and Lowly and Pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church

The Gospel Waltz is an unapologetic treatise on grace, not shying away from theological truth but processing it through the lens of a simple and highly memorable tool for a life lived abiding in Christ. Through the accessible paradigm of repent, believe, and fight, the Waltz offers a framework to take hold of the gospel in everyday life and appreciate the transformational and refreshing power of unrelenting grace.