Three Days

Three days... they can fly by, drag agonizing slow or seem totally insignificant altogether. Truth be told, I had never given it much thought. I was sitting praying the other day when God laid on my heart to give up Facebook for three days. Three days? I thought, sure, why not? At least He wasn't asking me to fast for a week, like I had done before. I can't fast with food since I'm diabetic, so when it comes time to fast, I find I have to give up something else. One time it was soap operas. That was over a year and a half ago and I haven't watched one since. Talk about a week of fasting becoming a habit. Gave up daytime tv altogether, except for the occasional HGTV marathon on the weekend.

I really thought God was just going to show me how much time I was wasting on Facebook and how much I could get done if I wasn't sitting in front of the computer, etc. Yep, I thought I knew God pretty well and what lesson He was going to teach me. Imagine my surprise when the "lesson" I learned was more about Him and had far less to do with me.

In all honesty, y'all know that I've been lamenting on our circumstances and being stuck in the winepress for far too long. It's been one thing after another and quite frankly, I will admit that there are times that I really wondered if God forgot about us altogether. I'd pray, I'd listen for His still, small voice and hear... nothing. I couldn't see God, I couldn't hear God and I couldn't feel God. I felt abandoned at times and yet somehow I still managed to believe. I still had hope and I still had my faith. I really guessed that I didn't "need" anything more. Isn't that we Christians have been taught all our lives to believe anyway? We shouldn't "need" any confirmation or anything more from God than what already was paid for at the cross?

So as I was sitting there praying, I was thinking about the upcoming Easter season and really grateful in my heart for all that Jesus did for us by going to that cross. I felt the grief in my heart of Him having to make that trek to the cross and the pure torture He endured until His moment of death. I rejoiced in my tears as I contemplated His resurrection on Easter Sunday. I've done this many, many times over the years, but this time what I was led to think about was the three days in between. I'd learned the lessons in Sunday school and thought I knew all about it but He was going to teach me a lesson this year that I hadn't seen coming. Three days. He was saying "none of you know what I did for those three days, nor will you, but let me show you what three days can be."

I wasn't making my usual posts on facebook to let you know what I was doing and quite frankly, I don't know what y'all were doing either. It was hard not to "just sneak a peek" to catch up, trying to justify it to God (um, yeah, I know) that I was just going to see if anyone had any prayer requests. But a deal was a deal and you really can't cheat with God. At first it was no big deal, but I found that when you have time to just spend with Jesus, He uses it. He showed me how well He did know how it felt to not see, speak to, hear from or feel the Father. He also showed me that while y'all didn't know what I was doing and I had no way of knowing what y'all were doing - things were still happening in the physical realm and spiritual realm. Same as it did over 2000 years ago. For three days He was incommunicado. We know that those who loved Him were mourning His death. They wanted to believe that what He had told them would come true, that He was going to reign as King and deliver them from all their adversaries, but let's face it - they had their doubts at that point. They thought their hope and promises died with Him. They thought it was all over and all they had to do was wait on their own day to leave this world. I've been able to relate to their feelings. What I never really thought about was what He was doing during that time. Wish I could tell you that He filled me in on all the details but He didn't. What He did show me is that He was up to something. There has been conjecture throughout history of what He did and we have been told of a few moments of that time, but we really don't know ALL that He did.

I do know that perspective can have a lot to do with how you are looking at a situation. I'm sure it was a very long three days for the followers in their grief. I know that to someone who is facing death, three days can fly by. I know that watching a loved one die can be both agonizingly slow because of their suffering and yet so quick because you can't stop it from coming. I know that to those who are just toodling through life, three days doesn't matter. Imagine having an eternity of "business" to take care of in three days. That's what Jesus did ~ for us. He had an assignment straight from God that He had to fulfill. We don't know the details ~ they were marked top secret for His eyes only. I can't even imagine how quick those three days flew by for Him, especially when compared to the timeline of eternity. At moments during my three days of fasting from Facebook, I felt all of the above and I came out of those three days a little more cognizant of what not only was accomplished on the cross itself, but in the work that must have been done in the three days after.

I'm grateful that I don't feel led to give up Facebook altogether. I'd really have a hard time with that since it's so much a part of my life now and I really love keeping up on all y'all. I am going to try and not spend quite so much time on here, so if you need me to see something, either tag me on it or send me a message. I won't always be able to keep up (as I'm finding out just trying to see what I missed... talk about Mission Impossible). I'm also grateful that God knew what I "needed" and chose to give me one of His Holy nudges to let me know that He's really still there, just like He's always been, and just like I don't know what was being done during those three days on my behalf, I can rest knowing without a doubt that He had it all planned out then and He has it all planned out now. As for what Jesus did for those three days after the crucifiction until the resurrection, well, it's one more question to add to my list to ask Him when I get to heaven... right after I'm through standing in line to slap Eve for ever having eaten that apple to begin with.