In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:3–6 (NIV)
We live in a fast-paced society where if something doesn’t say ‘instant’ or ‘real-time’, then we don’t want it. There’s never enough time.
On the other hand, God has all the time in the world. He lives in the realm of eternity. We know that, but we just want God to get a move on it anyway. What’s He waiting for?
We need to remember that life is a lot more like a crock pot than it is a microwave. The microwave nukes your food, and it’s tongue-burning hot in 2 minutes. The crock pot takes hours, and you smell what’s stewing long before you can even eat it. It’s torture!
We sometimes get a whiff of what God is doing in our lives, and it actually complicates matters. From the moment I started my craft of art and speaking, I wanted God to take me to the pinnacle of professionalism: working the big stages in front of the big crowds. However, I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’m still learning new things. There are challenges now that I would have in no way been prepared for 5 years ago.
There’s a point in a boxing match when lactic acid builds up, and you’re out of gas. You’re just hoping for the bell to ring ASAP. But the reality is that you can’t think of the bell; you have to keep fighting, and the bell will ring when it rings. You can’t focus on the bell in your mind because that’s a surefire way to get knocked out.
We also can’t focus on the end and hope that God hurries up to get us there. His plan is going to take a lot longer than most people would like. Just remember that what seems like forever to us is a blink of an eye in the context of God’s eternity.
Back to food (because who doesn’t like going back to food?), if you take the ingredients that you want to cook in a crock pot and cook them for a few minutes in a microwave, you’ll have one gross meal on your hands. A normally-tender pot roast would be hard, dry, and bland meat and vegetables on a plate. It’s all about the time.
Even last night, I felt like quitting boxing. I thought, “Why am I doing this? I’m 36 years old.”
However, I’m learning life lessons and spiritual truths that I probably would have never learned any other way. I heard last night that a lot of fighters quit boxing right before they get to the point where it all clicks and they really move ahead. I don’t want to be one of those quitters.
And we shouldn’t want to be one of those Christians – the ones who give up on God’s vision and timing because He’s not moving fast enough. God promises that He will complete what He’s started.
I hope to let God do His work in His timing, because when He completes His work, there’s nothing that looks, feels, tastes, and smells quite like it.
