Timing

Timing

March 21, 2017

When it comes to patience I am consistently inconsistent.  For example, I just do not get bent out of shape when made to wait as a customer.  I can be very patient as some poor clerk struggles to get through a transaction - usually with a difficult client.  I can wait - there are far more important things to fret about in this world.  However, such patience is not always evident.  I have a rather large, complicated program I use for sermon prep and study.  Several thousand texts are resident in the program and on start-up it can take several minutes, especially if a program update is underway.  It is not unusual for two or three other programs to be going at the same time on the three screens attached to the computer.  I will start a process on the Bible program but quickly become impatient with the slow response, switch to one of the other programs on another screen and quickly realize by doing so I inadvertently cancel the process started on the Bible software.  I wait a few minutes (seconds really) and start all over again, only to be lured by another program...repeat.  Such was my morning.  

My wife, if she reads this, will be pounding the desk by now.  Her complaint with computers, and with me teaching her about computers, is that I am patient with everyone else but her.  To this charge I reply:

Confíteor Deo omnipoténti

et vobis, fratres,

quia peccávi nimis

cogitatióne, verbo,

ópere et omissióne:

mea culpa, mea culpa,

mea máxima culpa....

I believe this sort of inconsistency is universal among us.  Given the right combination of events we can all become impatient.  Given the right circumstance, even spiritual giants can become confused, frustrated and overwhelmed when answers do not come quickly.

Hospital intensive care units are not for the faint of heart.  They are almost always the scene of a major crisis - a beloved mother dying of cancer, a teenage girl after a car wreck, a newborn arriving this world far too soon, a young woman unconscious after the blowout of a massive brain aneurysm, gunshot wounds, a family of four which were five before the Christmas car wreck claimed Mom, and the list goes on.  Monitors, pumps, tubing, wires, doctors, nurses and countless personnel are traditionally part of the scene.  Anguish, loss, pain, tears, fear and horror are common companions.  It is not surprising that quite a bit of prayer takes place in such a place.  Time changes.  A second seems like an hour, a minute like a year, and each day is a lifetime of waiting.  A new appreciation begins for those magnificent creatures we refer to as nurses and doctors.  An understandable idolatry can sometimes begin to form regarding the doctors - especially the surgeons.  that is, until the idol falls from the pedestal.  That moment when it is realized that for all the knowledge they have about the human body, there exists a vast library of knowledge they do not possess.  There are some questions asked by mankind which no man can answer.  So, we turn to God.

Then we wait...

And wait....

Well-intentioned believers blithely nod their heads and say, "In God's time."  Sometimes there is a nice pat on the hand to accompany the proverb.

That's not a bad saying.

But it also may not be a good saying.

Tough questions sometimes have tough answers.  Yes, miracles do happen, but not everyone gets the miracle for which they hope.  Moms do get an extra 15 years without a brain tumor, but some moms don't come home.  Some teenagers come home whole from a car wreck, others come home in wheelchairs and breathing machines.  Some never come home.  Sometimes the answer to prayer comes quickly, and sometimes an eternity passes.  I do not believe that the answer, nor speed of answer is in any way measured by faith.  But I do believe that the measure of faith is often increased by the experience.  So, why does God answer the way He does?  There is an answer, in part, for that question.

"And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.'" --Exodus 33:19 (ESV)

Perhaps you feel that still doesn't seem to answer the question - particularly if you are in the midst of crisis.  I agree with you.  The pat answer is God is GOD, He gets to do what He wants.  But I also don't think that is being fair to God.  Think about it, He sacrificed His Son so that we can be adopted into His family.  That sounds a lot like love.  Maybe we need to think about God's answer from God's perspective.  He's trying to get through to a pretty rebellious bunch.  For 10,000 years (at least) of human history we have been pretty good at running away from Him.  We rejected His lordship, His wisdom, His rule, we've forgotten His language, and thumbed our collective nose at Him.  Any real effort at reconciliation has been on His part (as a reminder, you did not crawl up on that cross).  He gave us the Bible - considerable feat since we no longer could understand Him. I don't think a handful of years returning to Him undoes all the damage.  So, with all that in mind, imagine how complicated it would be for God to share the wisdom behind why He has answered our particular crisis in the way in which He has chosen to answer.

Faith.  Did I mention that the most important component of faith is not belief, but trust?  Sorry about that, even the demons believe, but they don't trust.

Faith doesn't make a bitter pill any less bitter, but it does help it go down a little easier.

For all we know about how this works, there is a vast library we still do not know.  But this we can know...

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." --Romans 5:1-6 (ESV)