What’s the Rush?

Have you ever met someone who was in a hurry all the time but wasn’t really going anywhere? Those people in traffic really frustrate me and, at the same time, make me laugh. They speed ahead of you, weaving in and out of traffic, only to be caught one car ahead of you at the light. I’m always intrigued when people expend a great deal of energy but end up not getting very far.

We’ve all seen or done this in traffic, but how often do we do this in life? How often are we guilty of speeding ahead instead of taking the necessary time to think about or plan what we’re doing?

We live in a microwave society where we want things yesterday. If webpage takes longer than a second to load, we get impatient and reload the page, demanding information now. Exercising and the process of losing weight is difficult for us because it takes time and patience, things we just don’t have. When we don’t receive an answer to an email within minutes, we feel the need to call the person so we can get the answer we so desire.

But this isn’t how God works. God is intentional and strategically waits for the best possible time to do something, feeling no pressure to perform until the right time, a theme we see over and over in the Bible.

2 Peter 3:8-9 says:

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” 

Romans 5:6 says:

“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready.” 

In what areas are you rushing? Are you trying to rush God right now, believing your dreams and goals and visions for the future should be a reality now? Are you rushing those around you, sure that your timing is, in fact, perfect? Are you rushing yourself in order to keep up with the speed of others around you, though it feels contradictory to who you are?

I know I am. I have dreams for my future and I don’t want to wait for them to grow and develop at the proper pace: I want them now! I don’t want to wait on God and his perfect timing. Yet, I do my best to wait, though I am not the poster child for waiting well.

I want to encourage us (I am definitely talking to me too!) to take a page out of the Lord’s playbook and be a little slower in certain areas. Slow down and get to know your coworker or your children or your friends or your spouse! Slow down in your prayer times and just listen to the voice of God. Let’s be a people so in tune with the voice of God that we quicken our pace when he tells us to and slow down when it’s time to do so. Let’s do our best to move at his pace and not our own.

To go Deeper: Read Resting Posture