I Feel Like Noah

^{Gen. 6: 22} Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Full Text HERE.)

What a loaded sentence!  God had just asked Noah to change his life, everything about it, and step out in faith in a huge way.  I've been thinking about this man of faith a lot lately.  Here is the scene I imagine:

Noah wakes early, headed to another day working on the ark.  He's nearly done cutting down the trees he needs.  In just a few more days, he'll ready to start preparing the wood for the shipbuilding.  Just think, in a few more years, he might be able to start building!  

Fast forward 5 years.  Now, the ark is a skeleton, outlined against the sunrise as Noah trudges to work.  Along the way, he meets a neighbor.  "Noah, good to see you man!  You coming to the party tonight?"  

Noah: "Aw, man, I can't!  I'm still working on the ark, you know."

Friend: "Dude!  You've been doing that for years!  Give it up, man, you're going a little crazy on me here. I'm worried about you."

Noah: "God told me, He TOLD me, it's gonna happen, this flood is gonna come."

Friend: "Seriously?  You're still on about that?  Where is this God of yours anyway?  You are are playing the fool, Noah."

I don't have to work very hard to imagine how Noah felt.  I'm pretty sure he wanted to scream, just SCREAM at... anyone.  But especially at God.  

The "what if's" must have plagued him.

What if there is no flood?

What if I run out of time to finish before the flood?

What if I end up being the fool everyone thinks I am?

What if I heard God wrong?

55 to 75 YEARS of building. I understand Noah's feelings completely.  I get it.  

We've been building an ark. 

Not literally, of course.  But we have been selling our home, packing our things, selling things right and left, to prepare for SOMETHING.  We've been led by God to the mission field, and for months we have been preparing.  We've been told we were crazy, to be making preparations for a move without a destination.  And there were times we felt that might be true. 

It wasn't.  It isn't.

We have a destination.  We know where we are going.  I'll be sharing more about that very soon, but for now, let me just say this: The sky is becoming cloudy right about now.  It's starting to look like rain.

Has God asked you to wait for rain?  What was the result?