How Much Longer?

If you have enough time, read Psalm 6

How long, O Lord, how long? Psalm 6:3

Ten days – normally not considered a “long time” – can seem to never end, depending on the situation. Looking for a missing child. Waiting for a diagnosis. Suffering under the symptoms of the swine flu (alright, I don’t know if the swine flu is that bad or not).

There were ten days between Jesus ascending up into heaven, having just told his disciples to wait for the “gift”, and the actual giving of the “gift” on the day of Pentecost. (Did you know that Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was given to ALL believers, will be celebrated this Sunday, May 31?)

I wonder how long those days seemed to them. Maybe they went by like a breeze. Maybe they seemed like an eternity.

I don’t know about you, but “waiting on the Lord” is not something I normally look forward to. And yet it sometimes seems as though so much of life involves just this.

How long, O Lord, how long? (Are you still here? Have you forgotten me? Are you EVER going to do anything about this?)

And yet as trying and painful as the waiting can be, to put the wait aside and try to “fix” things myself – well, even in my short life thus far I have become disappointingly aware of how well my fixing fixes things.

How many years, generations, centuries, millennia did the Israelites (not to mention the world) wait for the Messiah?

And yet, at just the right time, in just the right way – He came.

How long, O Lord? I ask.

Until the time is right - of course! He answers (with a SMILE!). And then to add insult to injury, He adds, Would you really want it any other way?

Prayer: O Lord, if we have to wait, at least use our waiting to draw us closer to, to give us a greater yearning and desire for, to turn our trust and our hope ever more so to YOU. In your name, Jesus. Amen.