In this day and age, we have access to instant results. We
have become so use to drive-thru restaurants where you can order and have your
food in your hands in less than two minutes. We can pick up our remote, watch
the shows we want to see and record the ones coming on months from now. We can snap a picture of a check with our
phone and have it deposited into our checking account. We can order things
online, pay extra shipping and have it in our hands the following day. Just the
other day, I took a picture of some medicine I needed to refill and the
pharmacy had it filled for me 3 hours later. We’ve become accustom to barcodes
on buildings and menus that allow us to scan and order our food instantly.
We’ve become use to cars that start at the press of a button and movies that
come out of a machine in seconds. I mean Apple even created Siri to answer you
without even pressing a button. We can
talk to our phone and ask it to set our alarm, read a text message, and remind
us to do something. I typed “instant gratification,” into Google, and several
celebrities’ quotes appeared. They all had the same bottom line: “Instant gratification is not soon enough.” We
ask for things and, in most cases, we get them instantly, and when we don’t, we
aren’t pleased.
I partake in all of these instant gratifications. I like for
my food to come quickly, for my shows to be recorded, and for things to come
and go in a timely manner. However, sometimes I think this is where we forget
to have patience in the times when things aren’t done instantly. When we have
to sit and wait for ten minutes, it feels like an hour and an hour feels like a
day. When technology messes up, we get mad rather than seeing the good that may
come out of it. I’m guilty of it. I see it happen in my own life daily. I get
upset and angry when my “wants” aren’t met immediately.
Let’s put ourselves in this hypothetical situation.
Actually, it may be a situation that’s highly familiar to you. I’m pretty sure
we have all been in this situation more times than we would like to be. You
leave work/school/home to go to your next destination and you’re really hungry.
You pull into the closest drive-thru that hasn’t made you sick in the last two
months and you see that there are three cars in front of you. Three cars. “That
can’t take that long at all,” you think to yourself, so you pull up behind the
last car and wait. You’ve waited for approximately two minutes, and you can
hardly stand it. “It can’t possibly take that long to order food,” you quietly
say. A few more minutes go by and finally it’s your turn to order. You make up
your mind about exactly what you want and as you get ready to state your order,
the worker asks you to please wait a moment. You’re already thinking, “I’ve
been waiting. In this line. For 10 minutes.” You wait and then give your order,
only to wait until it’s time to pay and get your food. You look at the clock in
your car or down at your phone and realize that you were only in line for ten
minutes. Ten minutes is not that long at all. However, for us in this day and
age, ten minutes sometimes feels like a lifetime.
Now, I’m not saying that instant gratification is always a
negative thing. There are things that are helpful when they come instantly.
When we turn on a faucet, we expect water to come out instantly. When we turn
the key in our car, we are expectant that the engine will start immediately.
Things instantly occurring can be good, but when we get in this state of “it
needs to happen right now because I need it right now,” we begin to have that
outlook towards everything in our lives. We begin to think that our timing is
perfect and that our wants should be met right away because that’s what is best
for us. However, we learn in God’s word that patience is a fruit of the spirit.
In James 5 verses 7-8 it says, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the
coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the
earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at
hand.” If you are a Christ-follower, then you know that God works in his own
timing. We don’t always get the instant results that we feel like we should
receive.
How do we change our mindset, so that we see that God’s
timing is better than our own? How do we as believers keep our faith strong
when things don’t turn out in our favor or in our timing? When we actually have
to wait for things to happen, how can that be a witness to our testimony that
we trust in God no matter what?
John Piper stated, “The strength of patience hangs on our
capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and
detours.” Delays. We don’t always like that word. Delayed paychecks, delayed
flights, and delayed vacations don’t sit right with us. God sometimes delays
things from happening, even when we believe it is the perfect timing. There’s a
job we want, so we interview for it and hope to get it. God knows what’s best
for us, so why do we seem so upset sometimes when things don’t go as we
planned? Psalm 25:5 says, “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the
God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” Are we truly willing to
wait “all the day long,” or even longer for God’s timing? He promises us that
He will take care of us and that His timing is perfect. We should rest in that.
He knows what’s best for us way better than what we think is best for us.
I’m far from an expert on patience. I’m completely guilty of
wanting things instantly at the touch of a button. I’ll admit, sometimes I’m
afraid to pray for patience because I know that God will teach me a lesson that
may be hard for me. Nonetheless, in a world where instant gratification is
second nature to us, as believers we have a responsibility to show the world
that God’s timing is perfect and that patience in the good times and the hard
times helps strengthen our walk with him. As I stated earlier, I don’t think
that instant gratification is bad, I
just believe that sometimes it can lead us to believe that all things in life
should come instantly rather than in God’s perfect timing.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”-Philippians 1:6
