Delays (Part 1) - Never Come At A Good Time

The Leafy Sea Dragon

Looks cool, huh? Almost not real! He is a relative of the sea horse and eats on "sea lice." (Just thought that this would make your day.) He is found only in Australian waters, and is now protected by Australian law. The sea dragon doesn't use those leaves to help him move, he uses them to help him hide. After all, he only grows to be about a foot and a half. The sea dragon uses the water to glide him because he enjoys tumbling gracefully through the water, and doesn't ever seem to be in any hurry at all. It takes a strong lens to even see an eye blink.

Ha! Doesn't sound like our lives at all! After all, we live in the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the world of FAST FOOD and DRIVE THRUS.

Ten or eleven years ago, I heard a sermon by Daniel Hawtree Jr. entitled "Delays In Life." This was back when wireless internet was slowly creeping into our homes---regular homes with regular pocketbooks. Everyone was excited to try it, but there were a lot of kinks and tweaks to iron out. Daniel was single at the time but still in evangelism. He was at a hotel one night in some random city trying to check his email, and the signal was down. He made a sermon on his frustration with the internet, and ended up laughing about his anxiety with something completely out of his control. I'll never forget it.

Delay by definition means: a holdup, a wait, a detention, a detainment.

When I think of the word "delay," I think of having to wait or I picture a long line of traffic. Certainly nothing pleasant comes to mind. That's just exactly it, delays never come at a good time. None of us like to wait. We live in a "microwave generation" where we want to be able to just pop our problem into life's microwave, and get it answered RIGHT NOW. Gone are the days of waiting and praying for God's answers like George Mueller and J. Frank Norris preached in their days. We want God to answer our request, solve our dilemmas, and give us our needs---by the end of lunch, please. We use Psalm 70:5 to our full advantage. "But I am poor and needy; make HASTE unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying."

Sometimes delays save us from a tragedy, but that is another blog for another day. Right now we are focusing on the fact that delays are NEVER FUN.

At school, I'm one of those teachers who does not like interruptions. I study and prepare to deliver the goods all by the end of the class hour. DO NOT interrupt my teaching because I cannot get through my agenda. How dare there be a fire drill or a Code Red? What were they thinking calling ANOTHER chapel day that is going to cut into my schedule? And, oh PUH-LEASE, don't even think of giving us more announcements over the intercom at the end of the hour!!!!  I'm exaggerating a little here, but to the extent that the internet frustrated Daniel on his preaching trip, teachers hate interruptions in the middle of their lesson because there goes the attention spans of the minds we had in the palm of our hands. So, some days I have to just say (literally) to myself, "Stephanie, chill out." When Bertha (the momma hamster in our room) "throws up" on someone's desk in the middle of a great discussion on bird feathers, I have to "chill out."  When Carmela (the rabbit) wee wees on the same kid for 3 days in a row while giving test notes and we have to stop and clean up the mess, I have to smile and breathe very deeply. After all, I DID agree to let the kids hold the animals while I teach if they behave. I made a mental decision years ago when I taught my first three years in the school basement and counted how many mice we had caught in the traps the night before (it was fun), that seeing young people happy and learning was far more important than making them learn just because I COULD. Sometimes delays in the agenda happen. It is what we do at the moment of the delay that makes all the difference.

So, we are at the moment of delay. Now what? Well, our greatest example is Jesus Christ, right? Let's look at a couple of times when there was worry and stress and delay in his life.

The disciples were beside themselves with anxiety because there was no food to feed the thousands that had been following Jesus. The disciples said (please imagine intense, whiny voices here):

"And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, THIS is a desert place, and the time is NOW PAST; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, (whiny voices again) We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me." 

Notice that Jesus didn't just make the miracle happen in the baskets. He could have. I believe that He wanted the disciples (even more than the people) to SEE that he was still going to provide the food in a miraculous way, but in HIS way and HIS time. Maybe God gives us delays so that we can SEE Him work in our lives and grow patience in us instead of us just expecting Him to fix it immediately.

Peter, the king of impulse, wanted to protect Jesus all the time. This Jesus whom He had followed and given up a career for---He meant everything to Peter. When Peter was flailing out at sea trying to TRUST, it was Jesus who told Him to keep his eyes on HIM to not sink. Peter learned to listen to Jesus when he was facing death, so it was natural for Peter to want to protect Christ when He was in danger. On impulse, he pulled out his sword and cut off the servant's ear when they laid hold on Jesus. But Jesus rebuked Peter in Matthew 26:52-54, and it was all about trusting in the moment of delay.

"Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"

Jesus meant....look guys, this has to happen. Don't you think that I can call out to God and HE can deliver me IMMEDIATELY? But prophecy has to be fulfilled. This has to happen.

Why do we think that God doesn't have a plan for us? If God is in control, then He allows the delay. Look for the positive, look for the illustration that you can use ten years down the road, and chill out. It is in those moments that you can really make a difference in someone's life. Most of the time, the delay is according to some time schedule we made; therefore, we put the pressure on ourselves from the very beginning. Smile, and do what Marlene Evans used to teach us in college to do when we had a hold-up--REJOICE IN THE LORD. We can't be as carefree as the sea dragon, but we can trust while we are at a standstill that God has a reason. We can either choose to enjoy gliding through the water eating the "sea lice" that God has brought into our lives, or we can fume and flail---and end up still waiting anyway.

I will remember my own words tomorrow when one of my classroom critters has an accident in the middle of my lesson!

Have a good day!