Wait For It…

We hate to wait for ANYTHING! We make appointments so that we don’t have to wait, and hopefully the person we have the appointment with values our time as much as we do. We look for the shortest checkout line at the store so we don’t have to wait. We fuss and fume when we have to wait, and sometimes even get beligerant with whoever is making us wait. We fidget when a red-light is too long or when highway traffic slows to a crawl. We selfishly believe that our time is worth more than anyone else’s. Do you relate?

Recently I was in an “Express” checkout line at WalMart but the people ahead of me weren’t making it easy for the cashier to keep the line moving. The person behind me was loudly and beligerantly berating both the cashier and the other customers for the line being so slow. Did he have an appointment he was going to be late to? Not hardly. He wanted to buy cigarettes and that was the only line where he could buy them. He thought that he should get VIP treatment. Patience wasn’t his long-suit and he really seemed to have lost it long ago.

We drink instant-coffee with our instant-breakfast. The microwave-oven has largely-replaced the stove and conventional-oven. Grocer’s freezer-cases are filled with microwave-meals which can be ready to eat in under five minutes. McDonalds has put the FAST in fast-food by precooking almost everything before it is ordered. We prefer buffets to having our order taken and waiting for our meal to be prepared. Ironically, however, some of my favorite meals are cooked in a SLOW-COOKER.

We have become addicted to instant-gratification, because we want what we want, when we want it, and that is NOW. Why save up to buy something when we can pay for it with a credit-card and pay for it while we are enjoying it. Many parents are still paying off last Christmas’s credit-card debt when it is time to start buying for this coming Christmas. That is insane…

Abraham got impatient when God didn’t fulfill the promise of a son soon enough to suit him, so he took matters into his own bedroom – with another woman. His children are still fighting each other to this day. Moses got impatient with God in the wilderness and only got to see the Promised Land from afar.

Why is patience in such short-supply? Are there not enough hours in the day to allow us to slow down a bit? Are we really THAT self-centered? We wear ourselves out with our striving, but there is an answer. God says:

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isiah 40:28-31)

Are we willing to wait for the Lord’s timing? If we do, He has promised to supply all that we need.

In Christ,
Steve