Wait for it

In just a moment....

Hold on.....

Just give me a second.....

Do these sound like familiar phrases? All of us have been on the waiting side and some of us have been on the "hurrying to serve" side of impatience. Patience is a virtue as they say. You have probably also heard that good things come to those who wait. Both true, but not easily accomplished, right?

However, some of the bestest things (yes, bestest) are worth the wait! A brand new baby, a newly built home, a college degree, sex (yup...it's worth it!). It is the value that we place on the "longed-for thing" that makes it such a delight after we have waited for a while - suffered and pained for its arrival.

It truly is our flesh that makes us so impatient at times. It demands its own way always. We are like this from birth and some of us never grow out of it.

Maurice and I met online and we waited months and months before we ever met face to face. In was in this waiting period that we grew to know each other on more than just a surface level. I believe that it was a deeper relationship without the physical elements. You see, patience is a spiritual fruit. It thrives in the spiritual realm, not the physical one. Learning to wait patiently is just one level. Being joyful while you wait is quite another. So we waited to meet and took our time to get to know one another and then when we were sure, we hurried to marry - primarily because we had waited to have sex and to live together.

There is a song called "I don't mind waiting". I never used to sing it because it was a lie. I DID mind. I minded waiting a lot. I figured that is was time for some things in my life and God was not getting the memo. Thank God that before I jumped into situations that could have ruined my witness, I discovered the power of learning from the mistakes of others! The Bible encourages this when we are reminded about the children of Israel in the book of Joshua. God tells the next generation to learn from their predecessors (who died in the wilderness complaining) so that they could enter the Promised Land that He already promised.

I encourage anyone to not rush what God is taking His time to prepare and make just right for you. 

Jesus gave instructions about communion in I Corinthians 11:34. If people were too impatient to wait for their shared meal at church, they should eat at home. The practice of communion, or The Lord's Supper is a sacrament today. In many church, the entire group eats and drinks together to remind them of Jesus' broken body and spilled blood on the cross. So in context, some church people were just hungry and did not wait.

They fed the physical and starved the spiritual. 

Why would you rush a chef that is baking or a surgeon that is working in his gift? It makes no sense right? You could buy a house built on sand or have a custom-built brick one. You could quickly buy a college degree certificate or actually go through the process of earning a real one. We appreciate less what others only half-heartedly prepare, so let's not be impatient. It is not worth it. If you are struggling with this, pray to God for a change of your own heart. Ask the Lord to grow patience in you and He will. Then wait for it.