Give It To Me Now

We have grown so accustom to “speed” that when things are delayed, we become impatient and aggravated. Okay, maybe it is just a personal problem and I am projecting my difficulty on you guys, haha.

Here is an example, the other day I am working on a project in my office. I sent a multiple page document to the printer which is about 24 steps from my desk. As soon as I hit the command “print,” I jumped up and walked to the printer. Now I admit, I probably walk faster than most. But on this day, I was in a big hurry. I hit “print” jumped up and walked to the printer. I stood in front of the printer waiting for it to deliver my documents. I waited and waited and waited…nothing. I started talking to the printer saying “come on, you can do it, lets go” because we all know that electronic devices work faster when we talk to them.

As I stood there talking to this machine encouraging it to “hurry up,” I had this thought go through my head. “You are a card carrying member of the ‘give it to me now’ club.” As much as I have teased my kids for becoming inpatient because they had to wait 10 seconds for a video they were downloading to stream from a satellite in space, back to a satellite on earth and then beamed to the computer in our home, and all this took a whopping 10 seconds as they complain “our internet is so slow!”

Yep, we expect things to move fast and materialize now and not later. The more our expectations grow for speed and instant connection with little to no delay, the more difficult it becomes when God says “wait.” Let’s face it, we can deal with NO and we can deal with YES, it is WAIT that bothers us so bad.

All of this came to light last night as I read this passage in Mark 8:22-25.

When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch and heal the man. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again. As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.

Jesus heals a blind man. But He did something very interesting. He prays for the man, but the man’s sight is not completely restored. Jesus lays His hands on the man for a second time and the blind man can now see.

Did Jesus mess up the first time? Did He say the wrong thing? Did He not have faith? Did Jesus spit too much in the guy’s eyes? The obvious answer is NO. Why then did Jesus have to pray for Him twice?

There are so many lessons to explore in this passage, but here is what stood out to me. Jesus is capable of performing any miracle, answering any prayer and bringing anything He chooses into reality instantly! But for our benefit, sometimes He chooses to perform the miracle or answer the prayer in stages. And that means waiting.

We have all heard sermons on “God’s timing” and I am sure most, if not all, of us would say, “yes, I trust God’s timing and will accept the answer in the form and time He deems right.” But I know all too well from my own impatience that “waiting” is not our strongest trait as people. Especially people who are a part of the “give it to me now” club.

Here is my encouragement for you today.

• Life is a process. A tree does not grow in a day and neither do we.
• God’s “delays” are never unintentional. He knows what He is doing. You do your part and let God do His.
• Stages are necessary for stability and health. Embrace the stages and grow at each one.

Sometimes waiting is a good thing. Solid structures are built in stages, as well as successful strategic endeavors, answered prayers and personal growth. They all come in stages and sometimes that means, wait.”

Don’t fear or despise it, embrace it.