I’ve Got This

 

I have set the Lord always before me. Because he

is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Psalm 16:8

 

There was a little girl, who had a little curl,

right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good, she was very, very good,

but when she was bad, she was horrid.

Unknown

 

Do you know this poem? Whether you know the poem or not, I bet you can relate to the girl. It seems her brother is in my class. This little angel boy is good as gold most of the time but when he isn’t, suffice to say it’s just not pretty. The other day he chose to show his less pleasant nature just as the bus arrived to take him home. I was asked to convince him to sit down and put his seat belt on. When I got to the bus my co-worker, Lisa, was already there. I looked up and asked her, “Have you got this?” Her response was a terse but confident, “Oh I’ve got this.” And indeed she did. Her demeanor suggested that there was no room for defiance and our little darling complied. Lisa didn’t touch him, she didn’t threaten him, she was simply there with a no questions invited attitude.

            A few days later at church one of our music ministers shared some hard times she’d been going through. She talked about her concern that maybe this time God wouldn’t come through for her and for the people in her prayers. In a shaky voice, eyes glistening with tears she said, “But I hear God saying to me, ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got this.’” That reminded me of Lisa of course.

            It wasn’t any action Lisa took that sat our little man down. It was her presence, the mere suggestion of what she could do if necessary. It is the same with our heavenly Father. We pray and we sometimes anticipate big movement. Sometimes there is an event or action that takes place but often it’s a simple shift in our favor and we’re not really sure what happened. We just know that we feel better, safer, that  we avoided the disaster, danger, humiliation, etcetera. I wonder if in those moments our Abba simply stood in front of our enemy with a similar look to Lisa’s. I wonder if it is simply the suggestion of what He can do that often makes our enemies disperse or better surrender.

            Too often we feel that something needs to be done. We need to take action or have someone do it for us. It is human nature to want to do something. We fear defeat and believe that passivity will lead us straight there. To simply stand in the doorway of the bus, if you will, and wait seems too passive. Waiting for God is not passive. It is quiet faith but we want to see progress and in that pursuit we miss the still small voice saying simply, “I’ve got this.”