We live in an age of microwave meals and seasons of entertainment is only a mouse click away. Recently, we’ve even shed the need to sit at a computer. We can consume our media via the phone in our pockets. Shipping used to take 4-6 weeks, now we have our items in 2 days. Furthermore, the concept of writing a letter to a friend across the country is all but extinct. The need to wait is no more.  As a result of our microwave society, we can no longer wait for anything. We want answers now. In some instances this is fine. I’ll never complain about a 90-second burrito. But there are some instances where we need to wait. We have to wait. Often these are moments that really matter in life. If we rush it, we’ll miss it. However, to those who wait, the rewards can be immeasurable.

Youth is Praised

I am, as far as society puts it, middle-aged. However, I can remember what it was like to be young. When I was young, I thought I knew better than my elders. Stuck in their ways of tradition. That we would somehow be the generation that changed the world. It didn’t matter that my parents had told me that they thought the same. Or that their parents had thought the same as well. Commercials tell us how much better it is to be young. To look young, act young, to have fun and be damned the consequences. The world was ours for the taking. Unfortunately, we grew up.

Reality sets in

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:30-31

It’s not that we get old, rather we learn more about life than any textbook could ever teach us. Losing a parent, losing friends, being let down by someone we love; all of these are painful lessons. But lessons we need to learn from. Society may not be better immediately, but by the choices we make each day, it is getting better. I want to give up. Raising good kids and nurturing my wife is hard. It would be so much easier to phone it in. But I take rest in the Lord, I look to Him for guidance and He sustains me. By Him, I am able to wake up and show love and compassion when the world has none. In a world of hate, I sow love. This doesn’t just impact me, but both of my daughters as well.

Those who wait

In John 20:1-8, the disciples went from complete and utter loss to faith and hope. Not by means of instant gratification, but by having faith that the words of Christ were real. The He was not dead and in a tomb, but had been raised to life. This did not mean that their life would be easy. From what we know of contemporary writings, all but one of the 12 would die a martyrs death. Some beheaded, some burned, one was even skinned alive, but none gave up on the faith. They were waiting. As they worked to bring God’s kingdom to earth, they waited in the eternal hope that upon the end of life they would see the King. In my walk to make the world a better place, to bring God’s kingdom to the earth, as it is in heaven, I remember the prayer of St Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.