18Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
Waiting is not necessarily something that comes naturally for humans. And, the culture has conditioned us to want it now and have the means to get it now. Even when we are convinced that God has directed us into a certain undertaking, it becomes difficult to wait when it doesn't unfold the way we think it should when we think it should. We have to recognize that His ways are perfect, and He operates in a manner far beyond our human understanding, and His timetable is not the same as ours. So, we pray, we keep trusting Him and grow in our faith, and we take the necessary steps that we can in order to perform what He has called - the end result is up to Him.
This passage from Psalm 33 paints a wonderful picture of a faithful God:
18Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy,19To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine.20Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.21For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name.22Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.
Mary Hunter has enjoyed cooking for her congregation at the Yes Lord Church in Gary, IN. She told a New York Times reporter that her recipes have a divine inspiration. She is quoted as saying, “I don’t have a cookbook. God gives me my own.” She says prayer is “where I get 99 percent of my recipes.”
And, about 19 years ago, she had an idea, or you could say that the Lord gave her an idea: “I was writing down some recipes and God said to me that I should take that ink pen and stick holes all through it and put a clip on one side so that you can open it” — lengthwise — “and then put your onions and your garlic
and your aromatics down the middle and put it inside your meat — then, you won’t have to eat bland foods.” And so was born her invention, a long stainless steel device that, according to tests in restaurants and elsewhere, far outperforms those herbal injectors and other disappointing methods for introducing flavors into the interior of a big piece of meat.
Soon, Mary's Marinating Sticks will be going on sale in Target stores.
It's an idea that the Times headline says has been marinating for 19 years. The process of getting the product to market began with the heavenly vision and continued when Mary took the advice of a Gary alderman to attend a class on patenting, offered at a Chicago library. Thus she learned the ropes. Three years later, she had a patent and she also had arranged for an industrial designer, David Smith, an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois. She had put the idea on paper, Smith created several proof-of-concept versions, and the frustration began to mount. Smith said, “I had spent an entire summer making a prototype and made 20 renditions and none of them worked." He recalls going to Mary's house to deliver the bad news, but she said, "God told me you are the one to do this."
He states, "And I’m sitting there in Mary’s dining room, when God showed me an old commercial for the Maxwell House percolator.” That memory of the commercial made him realize that the device would not only have to hold the spices and aromatics but also allow enough flow to permit juices to move in and out. He went back to the shop and hammered out a new stainless steel model.
Then the process of testing and marketing the unique marinating sticks began - a company had agreed to manufacture and distribute the product, but then it was purchased by an out-of-country conglomerate. She then decided to do it herself, with the help of family members. They experienced moderate success, and one day, she had the chance to enter a booth in a trade show - there she came to the attention of a reality show called "Invention Hunters". In the show, the hosts took the marinating sticks to Rosebud Steakhouse in Chicago where the chef tested them and gave them a rave - declaring that the sticks earned an 8 out of 10 points. Mrs. Hunter was the undisputed winner of "Invention Hunters", and now her product has national distribution.
There are some applications for our lives from this great story of this 73-year-old woman from Indiana. First of all, recognize that God will give us creative ideas. We serve the Lord God, Creator of the universe, and God will touch our minds and our imaginations to give us ideas that can be used for Him. When we need that creative spark, or just wisdom to know how to proceed in a particular situation, we can call on and rely on our great God.
Something we do well to realize is that God's timing is perfect, so don't give up. Mary experienced a vision, frustration, even bordering on the death of the vision, and an extremely long process in getting this product to market. But, she kept trying. And, perhaps that is what God is calling you to do - if you are committed to a vision and believe that the Lord has given it to you, then you can trust in His faithfulness to bring it to pass in His time. Even if what you think should happen doesn't occur, perhaps the Lord is trying to teach you some other lesson through that set of circumstances.
Finally, Mary's story teaches us that God will open and close doors for His people. There were some incredible opportunities along the way - for instance, the closing of the door of her original manufacturer resulted in the family deciding to do it themselves. That resulted in a grassroots marketing and distribution campaign. She ended up in a large trade show, which got her on "Invention Hunters". So, the process may have not been what she thought it would be, but you have to acknowledge that God was at work in the process. So, even when we don't necessarily see how He's doing it, we can trust that He is at work for His glory!
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