December 22nd

1 Day is as 1,000

            But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

2 Peter 3:8-10

             God’s not slow…He’s patient.  As a parent, I understand the difference.  “Slow” is dragging your feet when getting in the car because you really don’t want to go to the Christmas party at someone else’s house.  “Patient” is being ready to go and then waiting because someone cannot find their shoe or they are wearing the same shirt that they have worn for three days in a row or they have the wrong car snack and have to be talked through coping strategies.  “Slow” and “Patient” may end up getting in the car at the same time, but “Slow” is about my selfishness whereas “Patient” is about selflessness and putting the concerns of others above my own.

            God is patient.  He has held off on Judgement Day and the creation of a new Heaven and a new Earth because He wants to bring home as many of His children as He can.  In spite of all the stupid and selfish and evil things that people do, He looks at each one as His child and desperately hopes that they will turn back to Him.  He wants to give them each every opportunity to repent so that they can come back home.

            I am not patient.  Lack of progress frustrates me immensely.  People’s “process” frustrates me immensely.  Intellectually, I know that everyone is working through their own issues and carrying their own spiritual and emotional baggage…and I know that we all heal at different rates.  I know all that.  But when people make the same mistakes over and over again, I get angry.  When they choose self-sabotaging behaviors, I get angry.  When youth act out in the hopes that any attention is good attention, I get frustrated.  I just want people to get to the finish line faster than they usually get there as I am ready to move on to the next subject.

            Patience is born out of love.  It is being willing to bend your desires and your plans so that someone else may benefit as well.  It is holding hopes and dreams for someone and helping them find what they were missing instead of sticking to our schedule and loading up the car right on time.

            God loves us.  He loves us so much that He is willing to prolong this grand experiment in the hopes that a few more of His beloved would come home to be with Him.  I get that we are frustrated with how slowly God moves.  I get that we wish that He would answer prayer faster.  I get that we would even like eternity to be here faster so that we could be done with this world and move into the amazing new season of our life.  But by stretching out history a little bit, God is creating a way the rest of our family to come home.

            God is not “slow,” He is patient.  May we be patient as well.

           

A moment to reflect:

Where do you need patience?