Moving At a Turtle’s Pace

We are a society that does not like waiting. Whether it is in line at the grocery store, at the drive-thru window, or at the security checkpoint at the airport, we just don’t like to wait. We are a microwave society; we want to push a few buttons and in one minute the meal is ready to eat. Even as the sixty seconds ticks off, we are antsy; we stand there tapping our foot as if to be saying to the microwave, “hurry up!”

When we are waiting, it seems like time crawls along at a turtle’s pace. You know this picture; you look at the clock and it reads ten minutes before three in the afternoon and after what seems like hours you look again, only to see that just ten minutes have passed. Every one of us struggles with some level of impatience; it is just in our DNA.

We often have those same “hurry up” demands of God. We ask Him for something, and we often, if not always, want instant results. And we tell Him what we want and when we want it. But God uses two things to grow our faith – pain and waiting. Not only that, God’s timing is perfect. He knows what we need and when we need it.

The Bible is filled with verses on waiting. In Psalm 27:14 we read, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” In Micah 7:7 we see, “But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” (Also Psalm 40:1-3, 130:5; Lamentations 3:25.)

When I get antsy, while waiting on God, I read and re-read this poem by J. Danson Smith, titled “Waiting! Yes, Patiently Waiting!”   

So today, wait for the Lord. His timing is always perfect, even if from your limited perspective it seems as if He is moving at a turtle’s pace!