The Lord is not slow about His promise,
as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
II Peter 3:9
In my personal opinion, the world would run more efficiently if God ran His plans by me before launching any new initiatives. In the past, life would have gone smoother if He’d consulted me about how long my father should suffer from multiple sclerosis, how many years of medical trauma our baby needed to experience, and when Mom’s Alzheimer’s should have commenced.
I have suggestions beyond the medical front, also. I could tell God that one of my friends has wandered in the wilderness of despair longer than I deem necessary. Also, I believe a hard trek on the road to book publication would have been preferable to the marathon He mapped out. Whenever our small church sets up for Sunday worship, I am inclined to suggest that He speed up the timeline for our church building’s constructions. I would like to remind Him that warm weather is overdue. Finally, I want to tell him that our son’s five years in a monastery amounted to overkill, as do the decades I’ve spent praying for the salvation of family members and dear friends.
I could add more to the list, but I think you get my gist. If you get it, why doesn’t the sovereign God of the universe get it, too? No matter how often I make suggestions, He doesn’t change. And I have to admit that as I have grown older, I’ve developed a grudging admiration for His timing. Over the years, He has met me during the long waits that irritate my time-conscious soul. He’s used them to prepare me for what He alone knew would happen next. He has used life’s interminable pauses rather than short spurts of action, to conform my will to His and to show me His face.
Despite His patient teaching and my increasing experience, I still spend days and even weeks trying to persuade God to let me mess with His Palm Pilot. So far, He hasn’t capitulated, and in the deepest, most hidden recesses of my heart, I know that’s a good thing. His eternal perspective can be trusted far beyond my temporal one.
In His goodness, He waits for my will to bow to His truth, and when it finally does, a prayer of gratitude rises in my heart. I am thankful for a Lord who isn’t slow about His promises, but is patient while He waits for me to trust and rejoice in His impeccably perfect timing.
