COVID has been testing our patience for almost two years. The disruption to supply chains promises to try our endurance even further as anyone who has ordered furniture in the past year can attest. I waited nine months for a sofa that supposedly got stuck in the Suez Canal, then apparently spanned the globe before it finally landed in Connecticut. Supply chains woes fill the news as port congestion builds with no end in sight. Santa is in a panic.
In our nanosecond world, delayed gratification is not something with which we’ve had much practice. We’re so accustomed to receiving anything we need or want overnight or within a few days, adjusting our expectations takes some doing. It also makes us reevaluate those needs and wants. If you have to wait six to nine months for something, you reconsider whether you really need it or whether you like it enough to wait. Is there an alternative readily available that will suffice? Often a sub-par replacement is substituted with disappointing results.
This scenario plays out in our spiritual lives as well. There are some who expect answers to prayer to arrive as quickly as an Amazon Prime delivery. There’s a company who brazenly adopted the name G.O.D. (Guaranteed Overnight Delivery). Sadly, there are plenty of people who want God to offer the same guarantee – and sometimes He does. More often than not though, His answers involve waiting – and lots of it. In fact, I’d say waiting might be one of God’s favorite teaching tools.
When we are in a waiting period, it’s tempting to look for alternatives to alleviate our discomfort and pain or satisfy our desires. Ironically, that prolongs the process because it’s only when we allow ourselves to sit in the discomfort that we learn God is all we need and His perfect timing can be trusted. There is no substitute, though the world offers a smorgasbord of sub-par options that only disappoint or worse, disconnect us further from our Divine supplier. They may offer temporary relief but will do nothing to address the root issue, and often compounds it.
There are no Divine supply chain disruptions, though we are often tempted to consider waiting periods as such. Christ came as a disrupter to the status quo. No wonder the people in power were threatened by Him. Because of His sacrifice on the cross, we have direct access to God’s limitless love and mercy. You can’t hoard grace like those who flock to Costco to stock up on toilet paper and paper towels. It’s unnecessary because, as it says in Lamentations 3: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. When it comes to a Divine supply chain, WE are the weakest link. Distractions abound (especially at this time of year) that can easily disrupt the flow if we aren’t diligent.
Even though last Sunday ushered in Advent, technically we live in Advent – the time between Christ’s first and second coming. Choosing to make time and space for Jesus is the key to waiting well. Given the state of the world, as far as I’m concerned, Christ can’t come back soon enough. He hasn’t asked for my input though, so I will have to accept His perfect timing. When we learn to sit quietly with the Lord, confident in His love, we don’t need to race ahead of Him because we know that whatever He has us waiting for will be better than anything we dare to ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.
In the meantime, Santa can panic over supply chains, but as Christians we never need to because God is our provider. His blessings won’t be found under the tree or in Santa’s sack. Gifts of hope, love, joy and peace arrive in all kinds of wrapping. We don’t have to wait for them. He bestows them abundantly throughout the year, but we still have to choose to open them. Never is this more important than during a season of waiting.
Choose wisely!
