Delays can be De-Light-Filled, Delightful

Delays can be De-Light-Filled, Delightful
Living in an instant gratification society we often find delays frustrating. Many of us carry devices that give us instant information, instant connection to others and instant news of the day. The idea of finding delight in any sort of delay is beyond our patience.
Wisdom teachings are filled with the word patience and waiting. The Bible suggests in the gospel of John that Jesus knew his time had not come. He had not come into his fullness so to speak. In fact the Bible is filled with stories of delay, waiting and patience. Remember the Israelites wandering for forty years, complaining from day one even though freed from their captures, before they found their promised land.
The Law of Delay that is working throughout the universe in a myriad of ways. There are few things in nature that happen immediately. Most life forms have a gestation time after insemination. Imagine waiting twenty years for something like a cicada to come into its own.
Cicadas create a lot of noise as the males skin splits down the middle, allowing the adult to crawl out. Did you know that the nymph stays in the ground up to twenty years before it crawl out and up a tree? God is truly delightful!
What of the delays in our daily lives like traffic? Have you not found yourself impatient, only to realize if you had gotten to the scene three minutes earlier you might have been hit by the car running
a red light?
Light is the second creation after heave and earth, biblically. Light is referred to as greater understanding and spiritual understanding. Often through time, the light of understanding events becomes clearer when we open our hearts and minds to listen.
Prayer and meditation take great patience because all too often it will feel like nothing is happening. Time is precious and people don’t want to take time, even a short amount of time, to sit quietly. Yet, science is catching up with the wisdom of the ages, showing that
mediation is wonderful for stress reduction and has many health
benefits.
Movies increase our imagination with super heros flying through the
air, running faster than light, and depicted to have super strength. The great prophet Isaiah, suggest we too can have this great strength. In fact it is written “But they who wait for the Lord...they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) The
bible is meant to be read metaphorically through the parables, stories, and Midrash in the Jewish tradition.
One particular story Old Testament story, about rushing the process and current for today teaches us about being patient. It is the story of Abraham and Sarah. Sarah could not conceive so she convinced Abraham to have a child with Hagar who is considered by some his
second wife and others their servant. Hagar in turn gave birth to Ishmael. Sons were very important so needless to say Sarah became very jealous. Ultimately Sarah conceived a child, the Bible suggests in her nineties, named Isaac. Ishmael is considered the Father of the Arab nation. Ultimately Sarah made Abraham get rid of Hagar and
Ishmael who almost died in the wilderness until an angel appeared to save them. These two births have been part of the ongoing controversy regarding who was the first born of Abraham. Imagine that! So many years ago and still the battle wages. The human condition is filled with jealousy and resentment, just as some would suggest of Cain and Abel. Possibly these first stories have much to teach us today.
The Greeks had two words for time Chronos as the time we keep our eyes on and Kairos, an indeterminate amount of time. Some consider Kairos the time when we lose our self in something we love. Kairos also is thought of as retreat time. I consider time when I am truly
in the flow of life; breathing in, breathing out, simple, clear, unhurried the moment of Now!

Rev. Lana Charlton is the senior minister at Unity Gateway Church,Coral Springs, FL, and writes for numerous worldwide, national, and local publications. www.unitygatewaychurch.org