Sometimes it Takes a Long Time...

Have you ever had to wait, and wait some more, and keep waiting for something that seemed to never be coming?  It's hard and makes you irritable, right?  Especially in our culture: McDonald's aims to serve the customer in 3.5 minutes from order to exit in their drive through; you can microwave an entire meal in 4-7 minutes; you can find out price and availability of items and order online so all you have to do is walk in and pick it up; forget going to Redbox, stream it right now online without ever leaving your home.  I mean, everything is moving as close to on demand as possible.  Why?  Is there a particular reason things moved towards instant (or as close as possible to it) gratification?

The easiest to spot reason is time.  We only get so much time in life and want to spend it to the max, not cooking, waiting in lines, or going to pick something up when it can come to me for a small premium.  The premise of spending time to the max seems legit, until you realize everyone has their own interpretation of that philosophy.  For one it's being at all their kids events, for another it's playing COD or Halo or what ever game it is at the time, for someone else it's being able to go fishing/hunting/to sports events, and on and on for each individual.  But, the key remains- time is the only thing we can never gain more of (despite lots of studies into how you can extend your life by eating X or doing Z).  So, how valuable is your time to you?

I ask because we act like our time is valuable, until we want to waste it doing something we know isn't valuable.  We make others bow down to our schedule but don't necessarily reciprocate.  We run and we run and we run until we are tired, burned out, and exhausted.  Seems to me this "premium" placed on time isn't as much a premium, as a selfish desire to do what we want to do when we want to do it.  Perhaps that's why a recurring theme in the Bible is the need to slow down and wait on God- "Be still and know that I am God.".  I mean, we've even been given a clear example of the rush of life plus prioritizing the need for still waiting on God.  In Luke's gospel (which is characterized by action- lots of use of the word "immediately" to bring the focus onto the action of what's going on), we see Jesus during His crazy public ministry doing one thing over and over.  And no, I'm not talking about healing or teaching (although He did a lot of those too!)...  I mean, let's look at an average day in the life of Jesus (Luke 4.38-42):

After leaving the synagogue that day, Jesus went to Simon’s home, where he found Simon’s mother-in-law very sick with a high fever. “Please heal her,” everyone begged. Standing at her bedside, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and prepared a meal for them.  As the sun went down that evening, people throughout the village brought sick family members to Jesus. No matter what their diseases were, the touch of his hand healed every one. Many were possessed by demons; and the demons came out at his command, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But because they knew he was the Messiah, he rebuked them and refused to let them speak.  Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them....

 Notice- Jesus was uber-busy.  Teaching in the Synagogue turns into healing people all afternoon until dark 30.  But, notice what comes next: He ditched everyone and went off to be alone and wait on God.  He pulled away from the distractions and demands of life so that He could rebalance, recharge, and refocus on what needed to happen next.  Not only that, but He took as long as He needed, not as long as the people waiting on Him needed.  In fact, we see that He took so long they were coming to find Him (and did!).  Do you regularly make the time to slow down and wait on/with God?  Do you find you're drained further each day instead of energized and ready to face the demands of that day?  Ever wonder why?  We're designed to require down time and stillness.  In fact, we're designed to slow down and wait on God and allow Him to speak into our lives and give us the energy we need.  So take a chill pill today- you'll get through the day one way or the other, right?  And instead of being stressed about what you need to do, find a quiet place, slow down, kick open your Bible, and chillax with God.  It'll give you more than you know and is the best way to maximize your time...