Instant. As in right now. I was pondering this greatly in the past week.
It first started with some spring cleaning that's going on at our house. Being a coffee drinker for decades (how that started is two different stories, for another blog post) I was looking to see if we had some instant coffee kicking around. We did. Dated 2018. Since I was going to drink it cold, I decided to try it anyway with ice in it. Not great. It had a stale edge to it that I figured could have been worse if I had done it traditionally. Now, I do drink coffee hot and cold, so that's not important. The instant shortcut I tried to use was to speed the process by trying to do it cold. And that is what I experienced throughout this week. Situations where I wanted an instant solution were taking time.
I found this repeated even for others. Several people this week were trying to hurry things along. It was not working. A speeder zips past me on a major arterial route. She is sitting one car ahead of me at the next light. A person was driving over the speed limit Wednesday morning. Rammed a sign on a median and took out the whole front end of his car. On the phone, madder than a wet cat as I went past. Quick is not always the best way. That is especially hard for us to hear as extrovert people who are driven to get on with the job. "Get it done" is a motto we live by.
And it gets us into trouble just as it got Peter into trouble. He often seems to speak first and think second. He quickly reacts to situations. For example, there is Matthew 16. Peter says wonderful things about Jesus and then promptly puts his foot in his mouth. It happened in Matthew 14 as well. And then, there is John 13. Going too far is one of the hallmarks of those who want instant results.
This was driven home to me in two different ways. First, in working to resolve the pay-out situation around our vehicle with the bank, I found we needed further help. I asked in prayer for the Lord's assistance. Five days later, I got an answer. A positive answer. Today whilst driving, I came up to an intersection. The sub-compact behind me roared to the intersection and then made a quick right taking off at high speed. So dangerous for any pedestrians. And in doing so, not only not stopping but then accelerating at a high rate of speed squealing the tires. Costing more money. Our gracious Triune God works on a different speed scale. For examples, I would encourage you to compare Acts 9 with 2 Peter 3:8 and 9. Now the question for all of us is, "How big a hurry are we in, and where do we slow down to listen to the Lord?" Pr. Scott
