Hurry Up and Wait

Patience ranks high among virtues, just not virtues common to Americans. Fast-paced-give-it-to-me-now living ravages America and impartially reaches to church families within. Moving brands us with its distinctive mark, and we often find ourselves impatient as a result.
Waiting five seconds for a car to accelerate when the light turns green causes our blood to start boiling. Shopping warps itself into a hunting experience—especially during the holiday season. Parking lots display the depravity of human functioning, busy stores reveal the impetuous nature of their clientele, and we target check-out lines like prey—looking for the shortest ones to pounce on.
Even the most uncompetitive of citizens discovers their impatient vice when thrust into stressful situations. We invest time, energy, and finances into making our images appear cool, calm and composed. But get us in the crosshairs of the taut, and we crumble into insecure, tantrum-throwing individuals who refuse to stop until we get our way.
Now, tantrums manifest themselves in many shapes and sizes. No once-size-fits-all tagline applies to the conniption fits we exercise when life happens in un-us-approved ways. Some of us turn inward and critical—judging everyone we see and holding them to a self-imposed standard of acceptance. Others lash out bearing remarkable resemblance to a two year-old embarking on his quest to make his parents miserable.
Regardless of venue, all of us throw tantrums of impatience that result in hurt and pain—mostly to ourselves.
FAUX ENTITLEMENT
Behind every tantrum—big or small, quiet or loud, conscience or not—lurks a sense of entitlement. We throw fits first and foremost because we don’t get our way. If someone cuts in front of us in line we get upset because we feel entitled to that spot. We erroneously think we deserve it because we stood there first. If someone takes it, we subconsciously translate their action personally as if their mission in life is to make ours miserable. In reality, that individual remains clueless to their action (after all, many people live in the realm of oblivion). But their ignorance matters not because we’re too entrenched in our own psyches of entitlement to recognize their oblivion and let it go.
All human entitlement exists only in the minds of fallen sinners. It’s simply a false premise. Sin consumes our deepest core making us entitled to only one entity—hell. Sounds harsh, thanks to society saturates which us with the false premise of our goodness and “rights” as individuals. Surprise surprise, society misses the mark.
The truth of Scripture (albeit depressing) asserts our entitlement to nothing except the hell we deserve as punishment for our sin. Of course, the depth of despair realized in this point fades away when acknowledging the all-encompassing nature of God’s grace through the Gospel. Jesus Christ traded places with us. He became our punishment so we could receive the eternal life and blessings with God He secured for us long ago.
Our entitlement in anything rests in Christ’s entitlement of glory. Christ deserves everything, and in Him we receive the blessings of His entitlement. Sin strips us of deserving anything good in this world, but God’s grace through Christ bestows good upon us anyway not because we deserve it, but because we stand in the sacrifice of the only One who does.
 GOD’S PLAN
These truths flesh out with immense ramifications in our lives, particularly in our dealings with society. But one more piece must be addressed to complete the antidote to impatience and frustration.
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you…these things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
John 15: 18-19; 6:33
Jesus clarifies a HUGE truth in these verses…our expectations of life in this world must mirror His. Only Jesus deserves God’s unhindered blessing and favor. Said blessing and favor transfer to us because we rest in the finished sacrifice of Christ and His Gospel. BUT this world is not the venue God chooses to unleash His blessing and favor to us.
 When we accept Christ personally as our Lord and Savior, we receive citizenship in heaven and begin investing in eternity first, in this world second. Our expectations in this world (should) reflect that. This world rejected Christ; we should expect no different.
Such readjusted expectations jerk the rug of faux entitlement out from beneath of feet. Every time we prize truth in Christ above the lies of this world, we receive peace. No circumstance, tragedy, crisis or trial strips us of the peace God offers us in Christ as we rest in His promise of hope and courage for overcoming the world.
WAITING…
Unfortunately peace infrequently alleviates pain during hardships in life. Knowing truth rarely translates into experiencing the joy God offers us without extensive help. Just because we know life will trip us up with pain hardly makes experiencing it a gleeful event.
Times of intense pain thrust us into the tension of faith—believing what we can’t see. We exercise faith in situations forcing us to trust God’s heart when we can’t see His hands. The process painfully awakens us to the reality of sin and its gross consequences. We cry, struggle, question God and plead with Him for answers, all too often only to discover His silence for a time.
The option afforded us is patience. We wait on the Lord, trusting His heart and promises while He carries us through the pain and chaos. Times like these force us to break away from faux entitlement and realize our identity and purpose in Christ. Surrendering to Him may not ease the pain like we desire, but He will submerge us in His peace and comfort.
Hurry up and wait on Jesus. Embrace His truth to the degree of forfeiting any sense of faux entitlement you’ve erroneously accumulated from this world. Look beyond this world to Him and let His truth be the lenses through which you perceive this life and all its pain. It won’t be easy, but it’s only worth it.