I cannot tell you how many times my mother would say the phrase, “hurry up, and wait”.

Hurry UP! AND Wait!

It’s an oxymoron.  We are always in a hurry only to find ourselves having to wait.  It was my mom’s way of telling us that everything has it’s time.  Funny how we do not listen to mom any better than we listen to God.

^{Ecclesiastes 3:1-8}

¹ There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: ² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

No, that was not written by the Byrds … love the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” though.

More and more as we go day in, day out … week in, week out … month in, month out … year in and year out (sigh – get the picture :-D), family and friends ‘hurt for us’ waiting for Phil to get a job.  Three and a half years seems like an eternity to them and they cannot understand.  Trust me I know.  They wonder what is the delay and why?  I would be lying if I said I had not wondered from time to time myself.

Why does Jesus delay?  In answering prayers?  In coming back?  Why?  You know you ask yourself why and sometimes you ask Him why from time to time.   Why did someone have to die?  Why did someone get sick?  Why?  Why? Why?   You know how you hate it when your kids keep asking WHY?  God doesn’t.  Trust me, He DOES NOT MIND!  What He minds is if you stay in the ‘why’ mode and do not grow.  He knows why but, it may not be time for you to know why.  Maybe it is He knows you have a harder road to travel that will require the strengths you are learning, the patience you are acquiring.  (I just heard a loud groan from some of you … “you mean, it could get worse?”   Sure it can and might.   Maybe it is because He knows you will be able to help someone who is going to go through the exact same thing you are going through or something similar and that you will be able to help them because of your experience.  Maybe He wants to reveal something to you, a truth, that you cannot learn any other way.  Sometimes we are so stubborn and we cause the delay.  Sometimes He has others watching and learning so they can grow in their faith.

There is always an answer to why?  Asking why is not a problem.  When you do not get an immediate answer and you allow the waiting on Him to discourage you and lose faith, THAT is the problem.

Why?  Because … there is a time to ‘wait’ … so you can have times of joy after times of tears; sunshine after storms and mountains after valleys.

For everything … there is a season … AND a reason … wait upon the Lord…“In His Time, In His Time … He makes all things beautiful, In His Time.”