Hey! Slow down! Put on the brakes! Sit down and take a deep breath. Don’t run…there’s no hurry. What’s the big rush anyway? Don’t the years fly by fast enough already?
Waiting is something that’s hard for us to do. It isn’t easy to listen to boring music on the phone while we are on hold, to stand in line, or to wait at a stop light until the guy in front finally realizes that the light has changed- five whole seconds ago!
Did you ever wonder what Noah did for more than a year in the ark- without TV?1 The children of Israel didn’t know how to wait for 40 days and 40 nights while the pastor was getting the word of the Lord so they put the associate pastor in his place.2 King Saul waited seven days (SEVEN DAYS!) for Samuel and then got ahead of himself because the prophet was ‘late’3. The Corinthians couldn’t even wait for each other at the church pot luck.4
God does not panic. I cannot conceive of God pacing from one side heaven to the other, stressed out because He has so much to do on earth. Neither do we see Jesus in the Gospels running all over the place because He only had three years to fulfill His ministry.
It is not good to hurry. We often make mistakes when we hurry.
The Holy Spirit says, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you”.5 In another place, the Bible encourages us to “lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”6
When I allow the world to establish my pace, I cannot hear the voice of my Lord. I find myself not concentrating on Him, but on the ministry. There is no time for meditation. (The word ‘meditation’ is practically lost in our frantic society- but as a good friend once pointed out, most of us do it in a negative way…by worrying.)
God comes to your window in the morning. He comes leaping on the mountains and skipping on the hills.7 He is excited to see you! So what does He want when he shows up so excited? Does He want to teach you something life-changing? Does he want to correct some of your faults? Does He want to give you important instructions for a special task? Well, according to Song of Solomon chapter 2- No! He is not eager to do any of those things. According to that chapter, what He wants is for us to go out with Him and listen to birds and smell flowers. He is so in love with us that He just wants to be with us.
I’d like to be with Him too, but I’m a very busy person. I just don’t have time for listening to birds and smelling flowers. I find myself thinking, “Lord, if you’ve got something important to tell me, then go ahead. But if not, You know I’ve got a lot of Your work to do.”
I am sure there are days that He goes away like a sad and disappointed lover.8 It seems strange, but I can actually break the heart of the King of Glory by refusing Him.
When that happens, all I can do is ask His forgiveness… and you know, He always forgives me. God has a lot of patience with me.
But I don’t want to make it necessary for Him to have quite so much patience with me. I want to be better than that. I want to be just as excited to be with Him as He is to be with me. When He shows up at my window to see if I’m ready, I want to jump out of my bed, get dressed and go with Him.
How about you? When the voice of your Beloved calls tomorrow, will you let the worries of the world wait…while you go with Him?
1- Genesis chapters 7 & 8 2- Exodus 32 3- 1 Samuel 13:8-10 4- 1 Corinthians 11:21
5- 1 Thessalonians 4:11 6- 1 Timothy 2:2, 3 7- Song of Solomon 2:8 8- Song of Solomon chapter 5
