But, I Hate to Wait!

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9 ESV).

Some of our good friends from Middle Tennessee are farmers. This picture was taken by Cheryl Brown overlooking one of their cornfields with a beautiful sunrise in the background. I have talked with her and her husband, Darryl, on many occasions about the complexities of farming on a commercial scale. There is always something to be done on a working farm, but there are times when you simply have to wait. You may be waiting on rain, or simply the process of growth to continue before you can harvest. I can tell you that I would have a difficult time doing that. I hate to wait. I read one author, Paul Maxwell, who expressed this common characteristic like this: Anxiety is the slave song of the human heart under the tyranny of insignificance. Impatience is an acute strand of anxiety — played in a certain key — that can mesmerize and trap a soul in an infinite loop of hypnotized idolatry. With each heartbeat, drops of innocent desire increasingly become a torrent of violent mania, accruing simple words with vast jurisdiction: “I want it” . . . “I want all” . . . “I want it all now, RIGHT NOW!” The truth is this impatience typically is masked under the calm innocence of the original desire. We have grown accustomed to waiting calmly on the outside while raging on the inside. We wait for that return text message; we wait for an answer from the outcome of clinical diagnoses from tests performed; we wait for our spouse to return home; we wait to hear news of that job we applied for and so desperately need. We wait. And, we grow weary. This impatience is the antithesis to the entire concept of “our daily bread,” in favor of a mere “give us each day”; further, it typically becomes, “Just give it.” Then we hear the misguided adage from well-meaning Christian teachers and ministers that “God gives three answers to prayer: yes, no, or later.” Well, the truth is we can barely tolerate “no” and “later” becomes the bane of our existence. Let me give you some good news. The temptation that faces every believer is to proceed as if God had given a “No” or “Yes.” To say “I’m just going to assume I’m getting this,” or “I’m just going to move on without a clear answer.” But that is not what God is doing with “later.” “Later” is not merely divine ambiguity. With “later,” God amplifies a Christian’s spiritual state. “Do you hear that? Do you hear that insecurity? Do you hear that fear? I’m teaching you how to respond to that. I’m teaching you how to process those emotions, and trust me with those thoughts.” “Later” is more than “not now.” “Later” means “I’m working. Wait a bit and the harvest will come.”