With technology, everything is real fast at real time.
A friend of mine, X, in the US wanted to surprise her husband with the adobo dish her family’s restaurant in the Philippines is famous for (the secret recipe is carefully guarded).
While cooking, however, X totally forgot the combining ratio of the vinegar, patis (fish sauce), and soy sauce, “which made the difference between our family adobo and the adobo of the rest of the country.”
She called her mom on her mobile phone and instantly got the answer she needed.
Real fast, real time.
That isn’t the case with prayers though. God, who is all-powerful, and who created the universe and everything in it in six days, often makes us wait for His answers to our prayers.
So we turn into a Habakuk and mouth his complaint, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Chapter 1:2)
We want to believe that a loving God wants to do everything for us. Yet, Christians also know that there are prayers He won't answer at all. And if we don’t take the hint, we could wait forever.
The blessing is, along the way grace makes us grateful for that withheld answer. We realize, just as James did in 4:3, “And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”
God is not on a real fast, real time mode. Waiting on the Lord, therefore, has become more difficult today when speed drives the world.
But we can look at the waiting as a season for stretching and growing our faith.
2 comments:
Waiting is hard, especially for war-weary seniors. But the wait is always worth it. He sees the big picture, knows the exact timing, knows the condition of our hearts. It's the latter that He mostly still arranges. Thanks for the reminder.
There are no time frames, deadlines, parameters and other human limitations to impose on God to answer our prayers, says our Parish Priest in his homily two weeks ago. Pray, then throw yourself at His mercy!
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