It's About Time!

About 10 months ago, I was just straining at the bit to receive something that I had wanted for such a long time and felt my God had promised. So one day, in exasperation, I got out of my easy chair, stood up and just shouted. "I want ____; and I want it Now...I have waited patiently. Please give it now." And within a few days, there it was...beautiful, just as I had imagined it; yet not at all what I had imagined...BETTER!

Life presents waiting room experiences.  Waiting for the last breath of a loved one who is dying.  Waiting for months to pass as the embryo turns to baby.  Waiting from the engagement ring to the walk down the aisle.  Waiting from the interview to the name plaque on the desk.   Waitings filled with excitement, fear, dread, joy.....

Waiting must be worth something to be productive. There must be purpose in it.

Abraham and Sarah waited for a baby a long time, but when it came, wham-o, things began to move quickly. Job did not wait long at all after he got things straight with his God...such restoration and so thorough! And then, there is, to me, the troubling notion that we are all little Sarahs or Elizabeths, Hannahs or Jobs.

But just think of all the relatives and friends of those few chosen people...did they struggle to get blessings or wait a very long time? Most of them just rocked along with life, husband/wives and babies coming in timely fashion. So, lets give up the big-headed notion that we are Sarah, Elizabeth, or Job. Let's be happy to be their friends who struggled less with life and just received it as it came.

So I have to wonder if we Christians (and other folks) just wait too long sometimes.  What good do you produce while waiting...what is purchased with your tears or empty hours? You have heard me say before that waiting is highly overrated!!!  Imagine how few people were called to be recorded in the Good Book ...and how many millions more were not.  What of their lives...were they meaningless because they were not chosen to suffer?  Why do we choose to identify with the few who struggled as extreme examples for us?  Let's know we can draw from their strength much truth and applicable lessons.  But we don't have to become them!

I am reminded of the annual television images of a few around the world who choose during Easter to have themselves nailed to a cross and dragged through the streets in some badly intended imitation of sacrifice.  In fact, I cringe at how they MISSED THE POINT COMPLETELY!  Jesus did it so we wouldn't have to!  What a gift!  And what a waste of blood, pain, and false humility to try to imitate the ultimate miraculous sacrifice of all times.  Jesus did not survive that experience without the intervention of his God.  We weren't chosen to be Jesus, and we don't have any friends with that power around us...in our false sacrifices, we just suffer for nothing.

Do you want something? Have you been waiting a long time for it?  Is it good for you?  Will it not hurt anyone else?  Is there a life-fulfilling purpose for it?  

Well get off your easy chair and just claim it!  Say, "I want it; I'm ready for it; I have waited long enough.  Thank you for sending it.  I'll be watching."

I hope that delivery man comes to your house today!