I’ve noticed that our society has a definite problem with waiting.  You see the signs everywhere.  Fast food restaurants, microwave ovens, high-speed internet, email, rapid-refund, etc.  Nowadays if you take the time to mail someone a letter it’s called “snail-mail.”

In many impoverished, socio-economic neighborhoods, everything is done quickly because of the imminent threat of death (due to gang, drug-related violence or even police brutality and poor health) and the mentality that a person may not live to see age 21.  Planning for the future is seen as being a thing for “other people.”

Believe it or not, the common phrase; eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, is a conflation or blending of two pieces of scripture.  The first is Ecclesiastes 8:15, “Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry” and Isaiah 22:13, “Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”

So if rushing about is the norm today, then what is the argument for slowing down and waiting for the things we want?  The old adage, “good things come to those who wait” seems to be an outdated way of thinking held by baby-boomers or pre-baby-boomer generations. Simple truths of agriculture and biology however, indicate that there are some things that really can’t be rushed if they are to turn out right.  For example; fruit that is not ripe and eaten too soon will give you a stomach-ache. A child is born pre-maturely is more prone to having health related illnesses/issues because it didn’t complete the gestational maturation process in the mother’s womb.

As Christians we understand that from the first breath that we take (when we are born) until we exhale our last breath (as we die), God is molding and shaping us to perfection.  When we have reached His idea of our perfected state, He will call us home to be with him for eternity in heaven.  The time in between is our “waiting period “when we are learning and striving to get our divine assignment completed correctly. Psalms 1:3 tells us; “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

So the best argument or advice for waiting that I can give is simply to keep doing God’s work and know that in the end it will be worth it. Galatians 6:9 states; “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” and Psalms 27:14 adds; “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. “

Blessings!