Yesterday, while caddying for our son Thomas, we experienced a rain delay. It was very frustrating because we were on the last hole when the horn blew. We walked to the clubhouse, found some chairs and we sat….and we sat and we sat. The tournament director was very good at giving us updates as to when play may resume but every time an update came…we were told to wait longer.
We sat there for three hours until they finally announced we wouldn’t be going back out…..until the next day. It was very frustrating to wait. No one in golf likes weather delays and I have been in quite a few with our kids.
I personally hate delays…..especially at airports. The waiting can be so frustrating….especially if I am ready to get home. Recently a friend of ours coming home from a mission trip waited 24 hours in the airport as she was making her way home….she was miserable.
In life it is hard to wait. In golf yesterday it was for our safety that we had to wait. Later that night on Twitter we saw that lightening had struck trees on holes 1 and 3 of the course Thomas had been playing. The delay was for our protection even though we didn’t like it. It is the same with airports. Many delays in airports are weather delays…or mechanical issues…to be fixed…for our protection…and safety.
Why do we experience delays in life? It’s easy to see why there are airport delays or golf delays. But in life? Not as easy to explain. As a Christian there may be several reasons why we are experiencing delays.
Some delays in life are God’s protection…even though we don’t like them…waiting isn’t fun…it is for our own good. You see, God has the helicopter view. He goes before us and He comes behind us. Many, many times delays are for our own greater good and God getting the glory. It requires TRUST on our part.
Sometimes delays in our lives are because our priorities are not what they should be. We can have good intentions, work hard, and be a good person…but I can say from very personal experience: if God is second and not first…YOU will experience Delays…Why? Because God hates idols.
Scripture is very specific. We are to have no other gods before Him. A wrong priority can be an idol. If we watch TV or check social media or read the newspaper consistently every day but we are not consistent in our time with God…Is that an idol? Well, are those other things more important to us than God’s word? Do they have more of our attention or keep us from putting our eyes on Jesus and seeking Him?
How about spending 8 to 10 hours a day on our jobs or careers or our pursuits and at the end of the day taking only a few minutes to read God’s word and pray? That is better than nothing but just stop and think about your whole day. You have interacted and made decisions all throughout your day…phone calls and come in contact with strangers….then you get home…and have your time with God. Ask yourself: IS GOD THE PRIORITY? IS HE FIRST?
I am not sitting here in judgement. That is not my job nor what I have been called to do. But I have been called to encourage others and I want to encourage you here with this: God wants all of me/ you…not just part. He wants to be first–my/your first thought. He wants to be MY/YOUR GO-TO GUY…not just when the wheels come off…but at the FIRST OF EVERY DAY.
Jesus being LORD OF YOUR LIFE….looks very different to me today………than it has ever looked. Today, I can honestly say, if there is a delay, it is not because of priorities. Although I have to be very INTENTIONAL at making sure I don’t allow anything to come before God. Funny…it has been six years now since I did an “About FACE” in realizing God had been second.
On any given day, something came in front of God…either a louder, needier voice in my house (which entailed me getting up before any other voice was up in order to HEAR GOD) or my own desires…taking over….my day. Funny, now I can look back and see that I have a six year track record of knowing God is first…before my family…before my desires…and life looks really different.
I know when delays happen now that they are not a hold off from God so that I can make Him first. They are a part of me seeing God more clearly. Now the verses found in scripture are living to me…active to me. Verses such as Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son….”
So today I encourage you…if you are experiencing frustrating delays…examine God’s place in your life.
You may need help from another set of eyes. He has good things for His children. “He has bread not a stone.” He is a jealous God though. Deuteronomy 4:24, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Being intentional about God being FIRST IN your life… WILL MOVE YOU FORWARD. There will be forward progress for HIS will for your life. What I like to call a “FLOW”.
One thing I can say from personal experience…is that the first flow that comes is PEACE…the peace of knowing God is in control. The second thing that comes is a moving forward…but sometimes you have to be PATIENT in the moving forward. You may have been traveling down a road so far away from God that the back tracking can take a while….but TRUST that, with God on the road back, you will not make a wrong turn. If there are delays, then it is God’s protection and you can trust HIS TIMING. Often God doesn’t deny, He just delays. Allow Him to be Lord today. Allow Him to be glorified in your life today.