But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
We are on day 138 of 15 days to slow the spread.
On a more personal level, I am on day 31 of however many days it takes to slow my own spread.
Neither are happening as quickly as I want them to.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m down 6 lbs. since I started back to the gym. I just wanted to be down ten by now.
This is a battle I’ve fought for 62 years. I’ve never been skinny. And I’m tired of waiting for the day that I don’t have to shop in the Big and Tall section.
I mean, I need some new shorts for our upcoming (also not soon enough) beach trip. I found the perfect ones, but I’m not willing to pay $70 for half a pair of pants. It’s been a struggle to find a place that didn’t say “not available in your size.”
I finally found some that I think will work. They’re arriving tomorrow. I can wait that long.
But I was thinking about all of this in the pool this morning. Maybe the reason we’re seeing so much unrest and crankiness is that we’re impatient.
You’ve seen the memes.
“Some of you never had to read 50 books for a personal pan pizza, and it shows.”
For the record, when I was about ten, I read almost twice that many books in the summer reading program at our library. It was well before the personal pan pizza was ever invented. But I did get my picture in the “What’s Happening” section of the local newspaper.
A good time was had by all.
I think part of what we’re seeing with the riots and destruction is a generation that never really had to wait
on anything.
I mean, think about it. This generation has never lived without microwave popcorn and the Internet.
And they can’t even recall the Compuserve squee, or having the time to read War and Peace while a file downloaded.
Seriously, the only thing this generation is willing to wait for is their coffee, and the decision on the short-term loan they need to finance it.
I’m sort of sounding like an old man, aren’t I?
NARRATOR: He is an old man.
I’ve done a lot of waiting in my life. I’ve never liked it.
Like you, right now I’m waiting for this virus to pass.
I’m waiting for the amusement park to open, for the theater to reopen, for church to reopen.
I don’t believe in coincidence. I got up this morning with no idea about what to write.
I did make a note last night that I wanted to share the song at the bottom of this post. Like I said, I don’t believe in coincidence.
Before I wrote this, I saw the daily post from the pastor of the church we’ve been attending since January (online since March). He’s new to the church and we’re actually waiting for the day when we can be back to worship together on Sunday morning.
He quoted the scripture above and wrote:
The truth is that sometimes, God blesses us by not giving us what we want. Sometimes, God blesses us by not giving it to us when we want it – by teaching us patience, and other lessons about ourselves, while we wait.
I wonder if we’re really learning those lessons.
I mean, in spite of how much our 47 years of house arrest suck, and they really do, we’ve been given the opportunity to slow down, to breathe, and maybe to think about what’s really important.
When all this is over, does every meeting need to go back on the calendar?
Does every project need to go back on the to do list?
That hints at the other post I’ve got brewing. I’m not ready to write it yet.
You’ll have to wait for it.
Photo by Kreated Media on Unsplash