A Cubs fan in Orioles Country.

There! HA! I said it….I am a Cubs fan…MUHAHAHAHAHA! …but seriously folks.

We were down Annapolis way last Saturday. Nice place. The Naval Academy. The shops. The bay. The ambiance. Good stuff.

While walking with my family near the Naval Academy Visitors Center a voice from behind chimed, “Yeah! Go Cubs!” (I happened to be proudly wearing my Cubs cap.) I whirled quickly, gave a fist pump, and retorted, “Go Cubbies! This is the year!”

Editor’s note: The Cubs have not won a World Series since Theodore Roosevelt was president…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xBxZGQ1dJk

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_cubs.shtml 

An hour later,  a guy with a Cubs hat walked by …he smirked at me and said, “Go Cubs!”, to which I  again quickly retorted, “Go Cubbies! This is the year!” And as he and his entourage walked by I bleated, “And a comet will destroy the earth this year too!” We all laughed, painfully. Such is the life of a Cubs fan. So much promise with so little result. A title seems like such a far away dream.

Sometimes, it can seem like we are spiritual Cubs fans- eagerly awaiting something from God that never seems to arrive.  We wait for our hopes to be realized. We wait for a sign, an answer, any morsel of communication from heaven….and there is seeming (or very real!) silence. How do we operate in that environment?

1. Realize that while any time seems suitable for us, God has a perfect sense of time.

There are many examples of this in the Bible, but one stands out.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law. Galatians 4:4

When the world needed a Savior “yesterday”, God still waited for the precise time for the birth of Jesus. This was not out of negligence or of any deficiency in God, but it was out of His perfect knowledge of what was best. He still operates that way today.

2. Realize that silence from heaven does not equal God abandoning you.

Matthew’s gospel begins with, “…and they will call him Immanuel” –which means, “God with us.”", and ends with, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” God is still with us by His Holy Spirit who lives within us and works around us. God has not abandoned you, He is with you.

3. Realize that we might have to make adjustments in our life to see the breakthroughs we desire.

There are instances where repentance is in order for the believer. Repentance is changing our behavior to match that of what the Bible reveals. At times, our choices hinder what God wants to do in us. We should heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit in this regard.

4. Realize that God does not always guarantee getting believers out of every bad situation, but He does guarantee walking with us through the bad situation.

Possibly the best example we can utilize is of God meeting , Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the fire after they refused to honor the request of King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:25). Here is reality, Christians struggle, they get sick, they get persecuted, they face heartbreak, and they die. But God is with us through the journey. Trusting Him and leaning on HIm is how He wants us to push through.

5. Realize that there is a day coming when Jesus will return for the Church and will end all of our questions, fears, and needs.

There will come a day when all of our waiting will end definitively. The day of the Lord will come and we will be transformed and will ever be in the Lord’s very presence. That day is coming. It is an unstoppable, inescapable reality. Tears will be wiped away. Full hope will be realized. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Do I think the Cubs will win the World Series? I certainly hope so…maybe even this year. Will Jesus return? Yes….maybe even this year.