Choose Life: Readings For Radical DisciplesSample

Delay or Denial?

I’m sure you’ve had times of desperately crying out to God for something, and there’s been nothing but resounding silence. Sometimes we’ve simply asked for the wrong thing, and so the answer’s no. Sometimes we’ve asked for the right thing and there’s been an immediate yes. The difficulty comes when we think we’ve asked for the right thing but it seems like the answer thus far is no. Well, with God, delay is not always denial. 

Picture Columbus: somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, with a restless crew threatening mutiny, and no end in sight week after week. Most of that famous voyage was mired in problems. He could have given up, but at the end of each day, after much anguished praying, he penned his final log entry: “Today we moved westward!” He must have been tempted to give up, but eventually he made it. Delay is not always denial. 

Many supermarket tomatoes are picked completely green and unripe so they won’t bruise, and then are sprayed with carbon dioxide to turn them instantly red just before they’re put on display. In appearance they’re fine, but a gas-ripened tomato is no match for one that has been allowed to mature slowly and naturally. We worry how fast we can grow, while God is much more concerned with healthy growth. 

Similarly when God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but with oaks, he grows them over a hundred years. Maybe today you need to remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go. We want immediate fruit in our lives, but healthy growth is usually gradual growth. 

Lord God Almighty, thank you that you know what’s best for me. Guide me as I seek to do your will today. May I know when to wrestle through in prayer and know when to let go. Amen!