Patience, pt.2

Raise your hand if you took a Griswold-style road trip that never seemed to end? I think the most of us have. I'll never forget in college, we road tripped it out West for a conference in a church "people mover." You know what a people mover is, its that second vehicle the church owns that is one step up from a van but not quite the luxury of a chartered bus. My friend, Miss A, and I sat in the very back of the people mover. Everything was fantastic until we hit the hot Arizona desert. Suddenly the back of the mover was HOT. The Dora video that was playing for our campus pastor's children became super annoying. People were getting cranky. Everyone wanted to get off as soon as possible. I'll never forget getting to the church in San Diego that was our stop for the night and feeling so thankful I was free from the people mover. I was glad we had reached our destination.

     In the Bible, we read about Noah and his long trip on the ark with his family and the animals. Until this year, I always thought Noah and crew were only on the ark the forty days and nights. But when we read Genesis 7&8 carefully, we see God made it rain for forty days and nights. Noah was actually on the ark for 230 days before he sent out the raven to see if dry land appeared. Then, almost 100 days after that, Noah and his family were allowed to leave the ark. If you've crunched the numbers with me, you can see Noah was on the ark for 330 days, almost an entire year!! Talk about the world's longest road trip! And the patience needed to endure it! I would have gone crazy! I think after the dove came back with the olive branch, I would have tried to climb out of the ark to get away from the zoo and even to get a break from family! But not Noah or his family. They remained steadfast in patience until the time God appointed them to leave the ark. 

    Are you there with what you are waiting for? Can you almost see God's promise for you being fulfilled? You have received that long awaited job offer, but you still have to finish out a month left to your current job. Perhaps you finally can see the degree you've worked on in sight, but you have six more months of classes. Maybe you're getting married soon and you are just ready for life to begin together, but you have a month left before that happens. It's hard to have patience and wait when you can see the promised dreams are going to be soon fulfilled. In fact, it's probably even more tempting at this point to take matters into our own hands and rush the dream along. 

     Noah's story teaches us this. Even though it may look like its time for the promise or dream to be fulfilled, we must still exercise patience and wait on God's timing. Even though the dove brought back an olive branch, signaling the receding waters, Noah doesn't leave the ark. When he sends out the dove and it doesn't come back, Noah still doesn't leave the ark.  Instead, he waits. Then God has him remove the covering of the ark. Noah can see the land dry. The promise of God is about to be fulfilled. Does Noah gather everyone up and lead the praise procession off the ark? Nope. Noah waits 57 more days. Finally, God gives him the go ahead to leave the ark.

     God has a specific time and purpose to what He calls us in life to do. God wants to fulfill those promises and dreams, but in HIS time, not ours. It can be hard to be patient and wait when we we are so close to realization, but that is when we need to look to Him and ask for a spiritual renewal of patience. Don't give up and rush ahead. Instead, like Noah, stop, wait, pray, and listen. And when the green light happens, run after that promise or dream with utter abandonment, knowing God is right there cheering you on. He has removed the obstacles, so that when you get to that dream, it is smooth sailing! And just like when you feel relief and thankfulness after a long road trip, stop and do what Noah and his family did, they stopped and built an altar for sacrifice and thanksgiving to God. You have finally received what you have waited for...be grateful.