“A few seconds are long enough for a revolutionary idea, a startling communication, a baby’s conception, a wounding insult, or a sudden death. Depending on how we think of them our lives can be infinitely long or ultimately short.”Robert Grudin – Time and the Art of Living
Our relationship with time has changed since humans first started measuring days with the movement of the sun. We used to use time to mark our lives. Now we live in such a way as to fulfill the requirements of time. We have forgotten time was meant to serve us, and now time has become the master. Aware that time is pushing us around, we tend to push back.
Think about it. How many times have you:
- Stood in front of a microwave oven and said “Hurry?”
- Refused to see a movie in the theater because it was three hours long?
- Left a restaurant because there would be a 30 minute wait (only to spend 20 minutes driving in a car to another one?)
- Complained because a website took more than five seconds to upload?
Our perspective of time is skewed in favor of the fast, the convenient, and the instantly accessible. It’s indicative or our general feeling of cultural and spiritual restlessness.
This desire for time to speed by and for the things around us to “hurry up” makes the waiting place even more unbearable. Like school children who have stacked our books on top of our desk and slung our backpack over our shoulder, we watch the big hand of the clock inch s-l-o-w-l-y forward, tapping our foot impatiently. We are ready for the next adventure. Why are we waiting? We echo the same sentiment as David in the Bible, “How long, Oh Lord?”
David, the anointed King of Israel, spent more time in the waiting place than most people. He didn’t just sit around. For a time he was serving King Saul and learning how to lead an Army, and then he spent some time in caves hiding for his life. He made friends, got married, won battles, and prayed, prayed, prayed. Yet, again and again his prayers increasingly reflected his restlessness to be King.
Hear his words in Psalm 13
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Psalm 13:1-4
We’ve been taught to think of the psalms as song, but they really were prayers that happened to be sung. In this prayer we see David exasperated and exaggerating. He sounds like a teenager who’s been grounded for a week begging to be let out early.
How long?
Is it going to be FOREVER?
How long are you going to hide from me?
I’m bored! I’m depressed!
This waiting is killing me!
Let me out or I will die!
All my friends, and even my enemies, are laughing at me.
Sound familiar? It’s the song of our prayers as we wait for our circumstances to change. It’s the cry of our heart when we are waiting for the pain to stop, or the healing to begin. It’s the hope we send up when we need a job. It’s the complaint we grumble when the lab results won’t be back for a week. It is our restlessness showing we are ready to leave the waiting place.
How can you tell the difference between when God is asking you to wait, and when God has said the time for waiting is over? The restlessness is usually a good clue. We get restless when it is time for us to make a change in our life. Suddenly, the same things we have done no longer feel good, or right. We spend more time looking out the window or down the track than taking stock of where we’ve come from and what we have. We are gathering our books. We are ready.
I’ve always advised people that the best time to consider quitting your job isn’t when you’ve had a terrible day at work and you realize you don’t like what you’re doing. The best time is when you have a great day at work, and everything goes right, but you still don’t like what you’re doing. That’s when it’s time to prepare for a change.
Restless energy is a great tool for spiritual revival. Take all that passion that is building for change and channel it into learning about God, being with God, and preparing to step away from the waiting place into the path that is waiting. What does David end his prayer with?
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Psalm 13:5-6
David uses his time to trust God, and enjoy the fact that he knows God is with him even when it doesn’t always feel that way. David sings and remembers the good times, and good things God has done.
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