Dwell in the Waiting

We live in a rushed culture. There's this constant drive and pressure to fill our schedules, and never rest. To keep our lives as busy as possible. To rush everywhere and everything. The patience level of our society today is declining every day. The more we are a part of a culture of immediate gratification, the less the muscle of patience is exercised. We literally have everything at the tip of our fingers. We don't have to wait for information. We don't have to wait for a letter to be sent to communicate or even a phone call back anymore. We can access many people's lives in an instant.

"According to Ramesh Sitaraman, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, technology has made people come to expect things more quickly due to their reliance on instant gratification. He mentioned that after examining the viewing habits of 6.7 million internet users in his study, subjects were only willing to wait for content to load for 2 seconds. After 5 seconds of waiting, 25% of participants had abandoned the content. After 10 seconds, half of the participants were gone. Sitaraman’s findings suggest that technological advances have an effect on our level of patience by worsening our ability to counteract impatience and withstand delayed gratification." (Lim, Cosette)*.

A quarter of the 6.7 million participants, that's 1,675,000 people within 5 seconds of waiting abandoning the content that they were waiting for to load.

Yesterday, I was on my way to work. I had been feeling pressures of rushing certain aspects of my life. Other people unintentionally putting that pressure on those areas, and I felt it. I was reminded that the devil drives, but the Lord leads. That this force, pressure, and hurried feeling weren't from the Lord. That He leads us with peace, to rest, and in time. The Lord often works in processes. To remind myself of the beauty of slowness and the Lord's timing, on my drive to work, I queued a song. The song was called "Slower I Go" by SEU Worship. Literally a minute after queueing this song, I hit some terrible traffic. I never hit traffic on my way to work. It's all country roads. But this was dead stop traffic and I had to find a way around it. As I hit the traffic, I knew what song was going to be coming on. Reminding me of the beauty of slowness. Of the Lord's timing. As this song played, I felt this wrestle. My soul was reminding me that I couldn't control the traffic. And even after I went around the traffic, people then were just driving slowly, my soul was reminding me to just be patient. My flesh though... I've never thought of trying to do so many illegal things in one sitting. I wanted to jump the curb and skip the line of cars. I wanted to drive on the shoulder to turn down a street. I wanted to pass the people going slowly (we were on a one way road). I was anticipating needing to go through a red light. Why? Yes, I was running late to work. And I was trying to get there as fast as I could. But, when it came down to it, I was just trying to rush. I didn't want to wait. Of course, I had somewhere to be, but so did everyone else. And if I had done any of the things I wanted to do, I would've caused so much more pain, frustration, and issues than just running a little late to work. I really wonder, how often do we act this way with God? With life? We try to rush through the waiting. And in our rushing, we actually do a lot more harm than good. We may get to where we want to be, but when we drive and force and rush, we might arrive. But we arrive so much more broken than whole. How often are we like the quarter of the 6.7 million? Where we wait a whole 5 seconds and then miss the content, because we abandoned the waiting? How often do we make situations worse by trying to force it to happen before His timing? Just because we don't understand His way of doing things doesn't mean we get to change our obedience to Him. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Living in a culture where everyone doesn't get to exercise that anymore, it's difficult to hold onto that fruit and continue to bear it. While no one enjoys the process of strengthening patience, I'm grateful for it. It reminds me to keep my eyes on Him. And I am so grateful the Lord convicted me that morning with the traffic and that song to go with it. It allowed me to see that I was experiencing the pressures from others to rush and that feeling of driving is not even close to how the Lord leads us. His heart is to lead us in peace and rest. And we have to fight for those things. Because the second the enemy knows we're at peace, knows we are content, and at rest in the Lord's Presence. The enemy will do everything he can to talk us out of that place. To drive us to chaos, confusion, and uneasiness. To consider all the what ifs and question the sovereignty of God. But, if we keep our eyes fixed on Him, oh how peace and rest flow.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

-Psalm 23

A reminder of how our Good Shepherd leads. Not once does it mention Him forcing. Driving. Rushing. It does mention, lying down. Still waters. Restoration. Comfort. Dwelling. Vastly different than the heart of culture and the enemy. In essence, peace and patience must be fought for, so we can fight with them. Even after we get peace and patience, we will be tested in them, we must fight to keep them. Maybe you're in a season of life where you feel the pressures of needing to live an expedited life. I'd ask you to remind your soul, God leads us with peace and to rest. His way may not be the quickest or the easiest. But, it is the best way, and it is the way we will finish our race most whole.

*Lim, Cosette. “How Technology Is Ruining Our Patience - the Stute.” The Stute - The Independent Student Newspaper of Stevens Institute of Technology, 20 Nov. 2020, thestute.com/2020/11/19/how-technology-is-ruining-our-patience/.