Sometimes we think and feel like we’re in a prison, left on God’s ministerial shelf and forgotten, only to find out later that all along we were just in God’s green room awaiting our turn to go on stage and perform for Him.
There have been several times in my 35 years of ministry that I’ve felt like I was in jail for quite a while, like I was in a dark box, all alone. I was convinced that no one saw me in there, no one knew about my gifts, my abilities, what I had to offer. I felt hidden from the church and the world, tucked away in a dungeon with a lost key. But the years have granted me perspective and now when I read the word I take heart, realizing that God’s nature and ways don’t change, and that often what looks like jail is actually the love of God, the protection of God, and the impeccable timing of God.
Because of what I know about God, because of my knowledge gained through relationship with Him, I now choose, by faith, to see any box of isolation I might find myself in not as a prison, but as a green room. God’s green room. They’re decked out pretty much the same way, no matter where the stage is. The furnishings are spartan, the food is minimal, the company is scarce, and the wait usually seems interminable. But every memorable performer on His stage has spent time in God’s green room.
Moses was in the green room for 40 years in Midian, David for 16 years in the desert, Paul for 3 years in the Arabian desert, Jesus for 40 long days and nights in the wilderness of temptation, and then there’s Joseph and Abraham and Noah and the list goes on and on.
So, rather than trying to figure out how much time will pass, or how to do my time, I’ve decided to use any time in isolation for preparation, instead. Because I’ve done it enough times I know the drill. I know that soon enough someone is going to walk down the hall and open the door and call me out. It always happens, and those stuck waiting never know when. And when it does it’s never a jailer that opens that door, but a production assistant commissioned to bring me to the stage God has prepared for me.
