For those unfamiliar with what that title means, it is an allusion to the Bible story where Jesus visits the sisters Martha and Mary. Here's what happens:
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42 NIV.
While the whole book has several captivating ideas that have make me pause and think, one line really stuck in my head, so I thought I'd share.
We've all heard the phrase, God's ways are not our ways." We get impatient to have our prayers answered NOW. God doesn't work on our timeline. Don't let that discourage you. Think about this instead:
Don't put a period where God puts a comma. (p. 126)
When your prayers are not answered immediately, or even for what seems to you like a long time, don't give up praying. Maybe God just put a comma there. A pause while other things fall into place that will make the answer to your prayer better than you ever expected.
In addition to reading this book, I'm in the midst of a Bible study and we are smack in the middle of the story of Abram/Abraham. Abram was tired of the wait caused by the comma. God promised him a great nation and Sarai was now too old to have children. So, he and Sarai took matters into their own hands. Sarai gave her handmade to her husband so that he could have a child, and heir apparent(ly) through her. NOT God's plan.
Pray through the commas God uses. Ask for courage to wait, courage to trust His will, courage to hang on when all seems lost. If it's truly a comma, the answer is coming.
There is another line in the book that didn't strike me as intensely but is equally important:
Don't put a comma where God puts a period. (p. 127) But that may be a blog for another day.
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