When I moved to London years ago, I remember feeling so grateful for the Tube (underground rail or subway) system. Having previously lived in South Africa where everything is fairly far apart coupled with the then rudimentary transport system in my area, I really needed a car to get around. As you know, to drive a car, you need a drivers license, money to buy a car, to fund insurance; fuel and maintenance costs. Whereas in London, all you needed to get around was a reasonable amount of pounds to buy a Tube ticket for the day or the week and you could virtually access any part of the city and beyond. Life was much simpler so I didn't mind the rush hour, being sandwiched between smelly armpits or the heat in summer. I remember overhearing people complain when the next Tube was in 5 minutes or even 3 minutes. I used to think, that's not long, what are they complaining about!
After a while the novelty wore off a bit. It didn't take me long to grow accustomed to waiting just a few seconds or even a minute for a train. I started to take it for granted. So when I had to wait double that time, or, God forbid, longer I felt justified in my frustration. Unfortunately, I fell into the same trap of train disdain as most fellow travellers.
The truth is my lifestyle doesn't provide me the opportunity to wait for much, which means I'm more inclined to want immediate answers and when I don't get them, there is a great likelihood, I'll opt for the quickest solution, just to avoid THE WAIT.
In the ultra modern age that we live in, everything happens faster than ever before. Waiting more than 2 minutes at a red traffic light starts to feel uncomfortable. At the supermarket, we look for the shortest queue even if we are not in a hurry. When we're planning a journey, the quickest route our GPS offers is usually the one we take. When I am researching something, all I need to do is type my keyword into an internet search engine and et voilà I am instantly greeted with an excess of information. If I need to communicate with someone across several time zones, I can instantly reach them on any of several social media applications. I am able to instantly transfer money via online banking. No doubt some of this modern living is wonderfully convenient and that makes it quite enjoyable. But the microwave mentality it engenders does not help us to truly grasp the concept of...waiting.
Psalms 27:14
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
In biblical times the concept of waiting was not so much a matter of time but a matter of life. Farming and animal husbandry were the major sources of income and food. To harvest a crop, it was necessary to have arable land and access to water. It would also require a plough, possibly even building one's own plough. Then the process of readying the soil, sourcing seed, planting it and then...waiting for the rains. Provided the rain came at the right time etc. one could start to hope for a harvest. But first you'd have to wait for the crop to grow. Each season required it's fullness of time, each season involved a waiting period. To eat the bread, the seasons of ploughing, sowing, growing, harvesting, threshing and grinding would have to have been fulfilled. Today, we mostly get our bread at the shop, making sure we stand in the shortest queue to save time.
I heard something that struck me as truth recently, 'the promise is contained in the journey, not just the outcome'. I realised from experience that the journey toward the fulfilment of a promise is part of the fulfilment. A farmer doesn't plant a seed without expecting a harvest, however between planting and harvesting, he is on a journey that requires enduring faith and patience.
When I look back at the promises that have manifested in my life, the major celebration was really the change that took place in my soul in the time of waiting for the promise to manifest. Receiving a promise from God is an invitation to change, often through the renewing of our minds. That change is imperative in order for us to be able to steward the fulfilment well.
Waiting isn't an idle, passive posture of boredom that passes the time until the promise falls into our lap like a rescue package. We don't need to be rescued, we have already been rescued when Jesus died and rose up for us. To wait on God is to trust God. Yes, it's exciting when we receive a promise from God but how often does that excitement quickly fade because we perceive the process or waiting as a delay. We are so much in a rush to see that promise manifest that sometimes we think God has forgotten the promise He made to us. God does not have a bad memory and He is not a man that He should lie. He is all knowing, all the time. Part of Isaiah 55 says, 'No word issues out of His mouth and returns to Him void, it accomplishes what it is sent for and prospers in the thing for which it is sent.' His promises are not empty but Yes and Amen in Christ.
Have you ever noticed that God is not in a rush? He doesn't hurry, ever. Jesus never seemed to be in a rush, even when He was seemingly interrupted on His way somewhere, He didn't rush off again (Mark 10:46 on), the story of Bartimaeus is one example.
Another one is when Jesus didn't rush to Bethany to pray for Lazarus. Actually, He tarried! He understood Father's will and He knew that to the glory of God, Lazarus would be raised to life.
A further one and certainly not the last can be found in Genesis 18, when Abraham spotted The Lord outside his tents in Mamre and invited the 'three men' to stop and eat with him. He asked Sarah to prepare bread from fine meal and a young man to prepare a calf. They didn't have an oven or a microwave for that matter. How long do you think it took to bake the bread and cook the meat? Notice, The Lord waited for the meal to be prepared and He took time to eat with Abraham.
There is a freedom in waiting on and trusting in God that cannot be learned outside journeying toward a promise. God is as interested in our journey as He is us reaching the destination. In every step He is wisely preparing us to be able to enjoy that fulfilled promise to the fullest. What does He gain from it all? He gets to show us more of His character, His faithfulness (which delights Him!) and we get to become more and more the people He destined us to be in His Son. Trusting God is a journey and how exciting that that ends in us being rewarded with a fulfilled promise! Trusting a trustworthy God to fulfil His faithful promise is rewarding for us, so let's hurry up and wait well.
No comments:
Post a Comment