Is God in a Hurry?

Today we present some relatively useful facts with which you can use to impress your friends: Each day, 167 American businesses go bankrupt, while 689 new ones start up. In the UK today, just 30 per cent of workers will take a proper lunch break. This year, Canadians will leave more than 31 million vacation days unused. Each day, 108,000 Americans move to a different home. 45,000 new vehicles are purchased. And 87,000 smashed up. 850 will have their appendixes removed, and 110 golfers will make holes-in-one. Each day, Americans eat 75 acres of pizza, 53 million hot dogs, and 3 million gallons of ice cream. Then they will jog 17 million miles to burn off 1.7 million calories!

Without a doubt, we are a people obsessed with movement. With busyness. As a result, Kenneth Greenspan of New York’s Presbyterian Hospital claims that stress now contributes to 90% of all diseases. Incredibly, anxiety-reduction may now be the largest business in the Western World!

When my first book was a hit, publishers began to call. “Seize the moment, Phil. There’s not a moment to lose.” In time I felt like the guy who said, “We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” Yesterday I said to my wife, “I’m crazy busy.” She nodded and smiled the kind of smile that says, “You write about this stuff. You know what to do.”

When I’m frazzled, it’s helpful to contrast my frenzied pace with the lifestyle of Jesus. From His incarnation to His crucifixion, the Bible indicates that God carried out His perfect plan without hurry. God’s timetable is not ours. Nowhere do we find evidence to suggest that Jesus laboured to the point of constant emotional exhaustion. We do read several times though that He took a break, a respite which helped Him accomplish everything the Father sent Him to do—without gaining an ulcer.

A man on vacation sent his psychiatrist a postcard. It said, “Am having a great time. Wish you were here to tell me why.” We don’t need to be told why, do we? Psalm 46:10 challenges us to “Be still and know that I am God.” Today, would you take time to rest? To laugh. To hold a child on your knee. Maybe even jog off some of those calories. Better yet, take time to celebrate what God has done throughout history and trust Him for all He’s going to do.