In a crisis, a trip, or while waiting for a decision; everybody just wants the waiting to end! “Are we there yet?” was the repeated questioned when I was young. How my parents survived three boys repeating the mantra followed by restless playing and clicking noise as each fiddled with the ashtray all cars used to come equipped with I will never quite understand. The theme repeats itself across generations and situations.
We lived in a society that demands instant satisfaction. I am reluctant to suggest that what we receive is true or complete satisfaction. We get what we are going to get when we refuse to wait. It is no longer a demand shaped by age, cultural, or personality; everyone expects, demands results.
Yet some things take time. This isn’t new. The fact that “no one was permitted to enter the Temple until the seven disasters of the Seven Angels were finished” (Revelation 15.8) is indicative of a time when one experienced the results of a process when it was time. The attitude is so pervasive today that certain products are sold through the media on the premise that we cannot have them before they ready. Themes like “we do it the old fashion way, one customer step at a time” and “we do things a bit more slowly” maybe unusual but they do exist.
In contrast instant everything and anything pervades our lives. Pudding, satisfaction, plug and play, cereal, and results are demanded and “delivered”. As a fan of old fashion cut oats which takes thirty minutes, minimum, to cook I wonder if anyone who uses the 30 second variety understand or appreciates what they are missing.
God offers you and me something that takes time. In fact it is unlikely that we will complete the process until we meet Divinity in person. In the interim I can only suggest that we hold onto faith, experience the life for what it can give us, and passionately pursue the right motives and steps. God’s “when” maybe in process yet we can experience The Touch today
