Better With Time

        For Chris’ birthday this year I made lasagna, home made lasagna.  You know, the six hour version with twelve steps in the recipe.  When we sat down for his birthday dinner, and believe me I was ready to sit down, we enjoyed a rarity.  It was so good.  We enjoyed the benefits of slow and deliberate cooking.  No frozen lasagna here.  It was a true joy. 

   Then, a week later, at the end of a long day, your’s truly did not feel like making anything home made.  So, out came the box of spaghetti noodles and the jar of store bought sauce.  The convenience was nice, but the taste… I soldiered my way through that plate of pasta. Afterward I said, “no more!”  Like Scarlett O’Hara, I vowed never to serve my family pseudo pasta sauce again.  The rich taste we had experienced with the lasagna was not in the quick pasta dinner.  The missing ingredient was time.  

Our culture loves anything fast. So why do we veer to the fast and furious? Faster holds out the lie that we are gaining time, while slower means watching more of our time pass by.  The truth about time is much more complex however.  Time is all about trust.  Do we trust the season that we are in?  King Solomon summed it up for us in Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” There is a key phrase in that verse, “under heaven.”  Our days and hours, years and seasons, are gifts from Heaven granted to us by our Creator.  Our time is not a given, but a gift.  

Black Marble Clock by Paul Cezzane

There is always something to do and always a season to do it in.  Both the what to do and the when to do it are given to us by God.  God does not want us to wring anxious hands or to follow our feelings and urges without a purpose or a care.  In order to know how to live well with the time that we are given, we must come to know the Father of Lights, from whom all good gifts come.  

To know someone takes time and intentionality.  With time, you come to know a person’s likes and dislikes, character and giftings.  The same is true with the Lord.  He is our Good Shepherd, who loves to lead and care for the sheep of His pasture.  Therefore, we look to Him and follow His voice.  He wants us to know Him, and He wants us to trust Him.  

Christ was never in a hurry while here on earth, but He always did His Father’s will.  This meant that Jesus did not heal every cripple, nor did He cure every disease.  He did not converse with every lost soul, nor did He cast out every demon in Israel.  He only did the work His Father sent Him to do.  Christ could say from the cross with all truth, “It is finished.”   His work was finished, and what a work it was!  Hallelujah, what a work!  It is in the life and death of Jesus that we can see that there is never any loss in Christ, for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.  

I need to grow in waiting, listening, and following my Father’s voice.  But I do not readily embrace God’s specific daily will for me.  I am tempted by my flesh’s craving for a fast and easy substitute for what will truly satisfy, resting in the will of God.  Instead of resting, I often choose striving.  And when I am needlessly fighting to make something happen according to my own will, I am not resting.

I want growth and depth in my life, but will God’s promise to complete the good work begun in me hold true?  Can I trust Him, really trust Him with all that is in front of me today?  Elizabeth Elliot says that the process of growth and maturity in people is often slow, invisible, and non measurable while it is happening, like waiting for immature fruit trees to bear fruit.  

Olive Trees With Yellow Sky and Sun by Vincent Van Gogh

My grandfather wanted to grow fruit trees on his property. And so like anything else he wanted to do, he researched and planned methodically.  He knew it would take time, and that was the hardest part.  Every summer I would ask, “Can we eat the fruit yet?”   And for several years the response was, “Not yet, but soon.”  I learned to trust in my grandfather’s patient waiting.  Eventually, my grandfather’s venture paid off and he had peaches, nectarines, and jams and jellies!!  The patient waiting and work produced a joyful harvest that was multiplied to many.  

All living things grow, and this growth cannot be rushed or circumvented. God grows us in the trusting of His ways and His time, especially in seasons of trial and suffering.  We come to see that He knows the end from the beginning, and that His promises are not slow but always on time.  He produces the endurance we need in our lives, and through this endurance, we will see the character we longed to see.  The tree will bear fruit, and our hope will not disappoint us.  

  ~ Your Fellow Sojourner