When God laces up His pair of New Balance shoes
Be Honest……
Ever get frustrated by God’s timing, or rather…His patience with timing? Ever think that He is taking waaaaay too long in answering your prayer? Ever wish He would move a little faster?
Let’s face it…..
God likes to take His time.
Creating earth = 6 days, plus another day to rest. Honestly, He could have just snapped His fingers and all would have been created. Yet, He takes 6 days to complete it.
Time from Old Testament to New Testament = over 400 years. God really makes ya wait on the sequel, right? I mean, Hollywood will crank out sequels like Pirates or Spiderboy (don’t call him a “man”…..Batman would tear him to pieces!! Can I get a “True Dat, Double True!” ???) within one or two years of each other. God waits 400 YEARS!!! Thankfully, HIS sequel is worth the wait. But still……400 years?
Look at all the characters who have to wait on God’s patience/slow movements: Abraham waits over 90 years for a kid, Moses waits his entire life for the Promised land, Joseph spends years in jail for a crime he was innocent of, etc., etc. The list goes on and on.
I mean, when you look at the Bible, when do you EVER see God in a hurry? He is a God of process and deliberation. As John Eldredge notes “if you want an huge, towering tree, He will start you off with an acorn”. He will not be rushed into anything. He is patient in every way.
So….. Does it ever happen? Is there anything that gets God in a hurry? I can only think of one thing. Read this from Luke 15…..Jesus tells a parable and the Father in the story is how Jesus is conveying to the people how God is.
11-12Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’
12-16″So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
“What have I done to get here?
unraveled and undone, I need my father
What have I done? I’ve followed my feet to nowhere
Now I’m here! As I ran, I can run no more
Prodigal me”
Shane and Shane —“Prodigal Me”
“Has someone taken your faith?
It’s real, the pain you feel
You trust, you must confess
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you?”
Foo Fighters —“Best of you”
What happens to the son?
17-20″That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.
Now…..watch carefully……read carefully…..are you ready for this??? Here it comes….(a beautiful collision)…..
20-21″When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.
Did you catch that? Do you understand the Father’s behavior? “His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him and kissed him”. UNBELIEVEABLE!!
The issue that moves God to be impatient and move with abandonment isn’t some planet moving out of orbit or some natural disaster or some king/president/dictator running amok down on earth…..no….what causes God to put on His running shoes is the sight of a repentant son or daughter coming back home. What moves the Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords is a far-off glimpse of one of His own coming back to Him, torn, tattered, bruised, shamed, and tired.
Does that blow your mind? Cuz THAT JUST HAPPENED!
With everything else, He is patient and process-oriented. But, with intensity that crosses into obsession, He watches that road. He wants so badly to see that son on the horizon. And when He does……He doesn’t wait for the son to get to the porch. He doesn’t come out to the son with “I told you so,” or “when are you gonna grow up?”. He doesn’t have some servant go out to meet him. No….when He sees the prodigal returning, He sprints IN A HURRY out to him, longing to embrace him. And think about this…how fast is God when He runs? I would venture to say He can cover some ground, quickly.
One author noted that this would have totally broken protocol for the culture of Jesus’ time. The author said that such a son would have brought such dishonor to the family name that he would be endanger of the father disowning him. That would have been the normal reaction of typical fathers in Jesus’ day and age. So, as He is telling this story, He is again, turning upside down what people’s view of life. Another remix from Jesus.
Ever been the prodigal? Ever just decided to do “your own thang” for a while, consequences be danged? Ever had that “apology speech” all polished up and practiced? Ever been jealous of what the pigs are eating? Ever wanted to go back home, but afraid of the reception?
Good news…
Psalm 51:17 “A broken heart and a contrite spirit-These, O God, You will not deny”
A Prodigal who has turned away from the old junk is never rejected. A person who leaves the mess behind and sets off for their Father’s house will be welcomed back. A son or daughter who may still be “a long way off” is being watched for and hoped for. Your journey back might be long and humbling, your steps might be slow and unsure. But His won’t be. His heart will be pounding, His arms will be open wide, and His feet will be running, FAST and TRUE, straight out to you.
Amen.
“what can wash away our sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Oh, Precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Now by this I’ll overcome-
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Now by this I’ll reach my home-
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, Precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know;
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
Robert Lowry — Nothing but the Blood
Thanks for reading.
Walking towards the Light from the cross of a King 