Naturally, we put our desires on our own timeline. And it seems only reasonable to want what we want when we want it. But our timeline is not the same as others, and often not the same as God’s.
When a baby is hungry he wants to eat now. There’s no concept of patiently waiting the five minutes it takes to prepare his food.
The baby holds a very limited short-term view, while the parent is easily able to adopt a longer view. Five minutes is not very long in the grand scheme of things, but the baby doesn’t understand this.
And we’re not much different throughout the rest of our life.
For example, we want to get married, buy a house, and have kids on our timetable. Or have the career breakthrough, experience the healing, and resolve social ills when we think they should happen.
Often there’s nothing wrong with our desires themselves. We just don’t always see the larger story unfolding.
This is particularly true when we compare our timeline to God’s. In fact, one day for us is like a thousand years to him.
And this explains much of our frustration when the events of our life don’t work out as we’ve planned. We want more immediate results when God is working out something across a much larger timeframe.
God remains infinite and we won’t always see his larger frame. But the key is learning to trust in his goodness all the same.
And like the little kid learning to trust his parents even when he doesn’t fully understand, this deep trust allows us to wait patiently even through our dark days filled with much frustration and longing.
Fully engage in each day as you work to make a difference in this generation. But remember some things will only make sense within the timeframe of God’s larger story.
Trust his goodness even when things seem delayed.
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