God Is Not In a Hurry

I drove to a meeting in the city the other day that should’ve taken about 25 minutes to get to, but as is often the case with the traffic here, it took much longer. Over an hour in fact.

It’s easy when you’re in a new place to blame things like bad traffic and long waits on the city itself. Who designed those stoplights to stay on green for all of 10 seconds and let about four cars through at a time anyway!?

I was in a hurry and was not happy about the snail’s pace at which traffic was moving and quickly got very frustrated. I hate being late to things, just ask my wife!

But as I approached my destination, it became evident that the slow traffic wasn’t the city’s fault or the person who created the timing of the stoplights, but that what looked like a fairly serious (or at least destructive) car accident had occurred at one of the intersections. I quickly repented of my frustration and said a prayer for those involved in the accident.

It feels like I’m in a hurry most of the time and I’m willing to bet that you feel that way too. Our schedules are packed with places to go, people to meet, and things to get accomplished.

In fact, my hurriedness almost deterred me from coming to seminary school.

I’m a strategic person, who aside from the laziness of my Saturday mornings watching college football (okay, and Sunday afternoons during the Packers game), generally tries to fit as much into my daily schedule as possible, not wanting to waste a single second that could be used to be productive. It was hard for me at first to want to “give up” 3-4 years of my life where I could be involved with ministry to go away to school somewhere. I’m in way too much of a hurry.

But God is not in a hurry. His redemptive plans do not depend upon time and He is exceedingly patient. Whether I’m 26 and embark upon full-time ministry or I take a few years to gain the knowledge and skills that will help me to more fully glorify Him and I’m 30 when I begin my ministry, God is not hindered.

Take the Bible, for instance. God knew from the beginning of time that He would one day send Jesus to Earth, but He doesn’t do so until approximately 2000 years after His initial promises to Abraham and the nation of Israel! What patience it would take to see the destructive behavior of His own people yet be able to wait to send Jesus on his rescue mission.

Take it back even further, and according to modern day scientists, the Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It took close to a billion years before there were even any signs of life on Earth. So God had a majestic plan to create life and people in His own image that would love and glorify Him, yet He had the patience to wait 4.5 billion years after the initial creation of the Earth!

I’m thankful for God’s patience in my own life. As eager as He probably is to send Jesus back to restore all things and live on Earth with us, He is patient, giving me and billions of other people time to respond to the Gospel. Had he come back when I was 2, or 7, or 17 years old, I wouldn’t get to spend eternity with Him.

I’m also thankful that He continues to be patient with me. The human heart changes slowly over a long period of time and mine is certainly no exception. Praise God that he does not flinch at my daily failings and is instead able to see who I will become as I continue to follow Him.

Let me leave you with a quote from Henri Nouwen as he was processing through whether to continue working with students at Harvard Divinity School (his “ministry”) or to join a community that serves adults with disabilities.

“I feel a tension within me. I have only a limited number of years left for active ministry. Why not use them well? Yet one word spoken with a pure heart is worth thousands spoken in a state of spiritual turmoil. Time given to inner renewal is never wasted. God is not in a hurry.”  -The Road to Daybreak

-CK