{"id":808,"date":"2021-06-21T09:36:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=808"},"modified":"2021-06-21T09:36:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T13:36:04","slug":"waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/21\/waiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Blogger Steve Goodier recently recounted an anecdote from the earliest days of international air travel.

In the 1930\u2019s, Britain\u2019s Imperial Airways pioneered flights from England all the way to the Pacific.  Unfortunately, the company\u2019s fleet of underpowered and undersized aircraft had to make many stops in between.

One of the tongue-in-cheek expressions of the day, \u201cIf you have time to spare, go by air,\u201d was an admission that flying wasn\u2019t yet the smooth and uneventful experience to which we have grown accustomed.

One of Imperial\u2019s first England-to-Australia flights departed Croydon Airport near London.  It hopped the English Channel and landed in northern France, where it was delayed extensively by inclement weather.  The next stop was southern France, where one of the engines failed.  Passengers and crew had to wait days for a new engine to be sent by sea from England.

There were subsequent delays in Rome, Cairo, and makeshift airports across the Middle East.  The plane finally landed in Singapore.  At this point a female passenger asked an Imperial representative if he thought the flight would arrive in Australia within the next few weeks, since she was expecting a baby.

\u201cMy dear lady,\u201d he said brusquely, \u201cyou should never have commenced your trip in that condition.\u201d

She replied, \u201cI didn\u2019t.\u201d 

Waiting is not one of our culture\u2019s inherent strengths.  We are addicted to speed: faster fast food, same-day deliveries, and urgent upgrades to 5G (because who wants to be slowed down for even a few extra seconds). 

In his book A Geography of Time<\/em>, Robert Levine proposes the creation of the smallest unit of time known to humanity \u2013 the honko-second<\/em>, which he defines as \u201cthe time between when the light changes and the person behind you honks his horn.\u201d 

One of the most eye-opening discoveries for beginning Bible students is that God rarely moves at our frantic pace.

Even though God is endowed with all the power in the universe, and often announces exactly what\u2019s going to happen next, he sometimes compels his people to wait just a little bit longer.  Or perhaps a whole lot longer. 

God declares that Abraham and Sarah will have a baby in their old age.  But they have to wait another 24 years for it to happen.  The Hebrews will live in Egypt for a while, after which God will call them out.  But 430 years come and go before the Exodus finally begins.  Journeying at last to the Promised Land \u2013 a trip which scholars believe could have been accomplished in about three weeks \u2013 the ex-slaves end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.   

Why does this keep happening? 

Author and pastor Ben Patterson points out that what God accomplishes within us<\/em> as we wait is often just as important as what we are waiting for. 

Disciples of Jesus are lifelong learners of the Son of God.  That means we intentionally imitate what he says and does.  What\u2019s often overlooked, however, is that we\u2019re also called to imitate his entire approach to life \u2013 which includes the reality that the Gospels never present Jesus as panicked, hurried, or desperate. 

God is patient.  God waits.  And his people are called to wait, too. 

We can see this in one of the most celebrated texts from the Old Testament prophets:  \u201cEven youths grow tired and weary, and the young will fall exhausted.  But those who wait<\/strong><\/em> for the Lord shall renew their strength.  They shall soar on wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint.\u201d (Isaiah 40:30-31)

Interestingly, Isaiah\u2019s words of encouragement don\u2019t depict an accelerating pace of life.  That\u2019s what we might expect.  We\u2019re used to things going faster, after all.  Isaiah instead describes a deceleration<\/em>.  First we soar.  Then we run.  Finally, we walk. 

The only way to keep pace with Jesus, so we don’t end up running past him, is to slow down.  To walk.  And whenever God deems it necessary, to wait. 

The good news, of course, is that waiting doesn\u2019t mean God has stopped caring about whatever we\u2019re facing.

Whenever we stand in need of what God alone can provide, he\u2019ll be there.

In a honko-second. <\/em>
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Blogger Steve Goodier recently recounted an anecdote from the earliest days of international air travel. In the 1930\u2019s, Britain\u2019s Imperial Airways pioneered flights from England all the way to the Pacific.  Unfortunately, the company\u2019s fleet of underpowered and undersized aircraft had to make many stops in between. One of the tongue-in-cheek expressions of the day, \u201cIf you have time to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[178,50],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-patience","tag-waiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}