Catching the “rabbit” sometimes means slowing down, not running faster! For the most part I lived the Front 9 of my life in a hurry. When I was going anywhere doing anything, if you can just imagine the pace, there was a “trail of dust” right behind where I had just been.
Looking back, I don’t remember why I lived in such a way. Maybe it was from being raised by a father who was always in a hurry. My mother called him the “minute man!” Today at 85, he has slowed down mentally and physically but for my formative years he hurried us most of the time! I am not sure exactly where he got that from. It has taken me until the Back 9 and some self-reflection, prayer and Bible study for God to show me hurry is not always a good thing. You actually don’t catch the rabbit; you run by him. NOT GOOD!
In fact, just glancing in the “rear view” mirror of my life, I do regret the “pace” in which I lived much of the Front 9. It was a pace that was TOO MUCH in a HURRY. Hear me on this–“glancing” does not mean “circling or spinning around and around” and beating yourself up.
I know that I know…I ran ahead of God. A lack of patience and self-control which are major fruits of the spirit. Always in a hurry. Not allowing myself to wait, listen and wait some more if that was what was required. I lived so much in “take action” mode…”grass could NOT grow!” I didn’t recognize the fact that God usually doesn’t work as fast as we would like for Him to. Sometimes His time frame for most things is…a “while,” not seconds, minutes, hours or even days. Sometimes His time frame is years. 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
WHAT?! Yes, you heard me. YEARS! :o) Just look at Moses, Sarah and Abraham, Joseph…just to name a few! To God….a day can be years! I try not to linger…wondering around in the What if’s? in those areas where I am waiting. Instead, that is the time to embrace scripture: “He redeems and restores the years the locust has eaten away…” (Joel 2:25).
I also know “…that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). My “rush” probably cost me many blessings and opportunities. But today? I know I am more responsible for what I now know and that is…..
to slow down…and walk behind God and not run in FRONT of HIM.
That requires me to “slow down!” I know now…and here me…this is the nugget I wish for you to get: “That you can do the work of God at a pace that destroys the work of God in you.”
The pace that God has for anyone is not to go faster and faster. The key is to take off your “running shoes” and experience God in the present. The right here and right now. Slowing down enough to recognize…see. Not running by and chasing the future while missing the things He has for you now. Sometimes the resting and waiting is when God is speaking. We are just in too much of a hurry to see. We blaze past or our feet are thumping so loudly we don’t hear.
God has never yelled at me. He speaks softly…to my spirit…as I have slowed down…ON PURPOSE…and decided to decide…to take life at a half pace speed at least! More is accomplished. More joy. More fruit. Basically, MORE GOD. Taking a Mary approach instead of a Martha but amazingly accomplishing a lot more! How does that happen? It is now not done in my strength but God’s.
Just remember, to catch the “rabbits” God has for you may just mean slowing down…not running faster! :o)
Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God…”
“Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.” ~Elisabeth Elliot