The idea hits like a 2x4 across the head. You're pumped! This is it! Your calling. Your life's work. The reason you're here. You can't wait to get started.
But you don't get started.
You wait. And wait. And wait...
The timing's off. Not old enough. Not experienced enough. No resources. The reasons seem to go on to infinity and you paw the ground like a thoroughbred at the starting gate.
What's the matter with God? Can't He see how ready you are? Why won't He blow the whistle and open the gate?
Did you ever wonder how old Jesus was when He knew He was the Son of God? When did it hit Him? Somewhere between the teether and the temple, He realized He wasn't exactly like His brothers and sisters.
At age 12, He already knew who He was. He chose to spend His vacation in Jerusalem trading wisdom with the elders instead of skateboarding off the Wailing Wall with His friends. Everyone was impressed. What a kid! Full-ride scholarship material.
Mom and Dad were 3 days into the trip home before they realized He wasn't with them. He hadn't realized it either, so enthralled was He with what God had sent Him here to do.
So what did He do next?
The moment had come. He knew He was the Messiah. Should He start collecting disciples? Begin the public lecture circuit? Practice healing somebody? Think how much He could accomplish for God if He started now!
Luke 2:51 is the last we hear of him for nearly 20 years. It says "he went home to Nazareth and lived in subjection to them (his parents)."
That's it? After the big splash at the temple, He just went home like any other kid and did His chores and his homework? No Messiah stuff for eighteen years?
Is that how you would have done it if you were God?
What was the point of the next 18 years? Were they wasted? Couldn't Jesus have accomplished a lot more if He'd started earlier? Think of the notoriety of a Boy-King-of-the-Jews. The wise men would hear of it and tell everybody, "we saw him first." There would be interviews with the remaining shepherds who'd seen the angels. Old Herod-the-Meanie was dead, so that fear was over. What was with all the wasted time?
We are a generation and a culture of "hurry up." We cram as much activity as possible into every spare second, doubling and tripling chores so we can accomplish more at one time. We have completely lost the concept of "wait."
God has not.
Sometimes that business about one day being as a thousand years with God seems literal. We don't like His timing. Doesn't seem right to us.
But God is not in the same hurry that we're in. He already knows how this is going to turn out and He knows how to achieve the results He wants.
He sent Jesus home to grow up, learn earthly obedience, and go through the trials of living with an imperfect family in an imperfect neighborhood with Torah teachers who made mistakes about the very book He wrote. Joseph's kid from Nazareth had to know what it felt like to hit His thumb with a hammer, get stiffed by a customer, be made fun of for not dating, and not make the stick-ball team. That was all part of God's assignment just as the healing and preaching were. He had to learn how to wait, just as we do.
What season are you in? Does it seem that your life goal gets further and further away? Do you feel like you're spinning your wheels, lost in mediocrity?
Are you in a season of WAIT? In God's master plan, that season is just as critical as any other. It's all part of the big picture. He's seasoning you, training you, teaching you endurance, commitment, and chipping off a few rough edges before you're ready to do it His way.
Think what Jesus accomplished in only 3 years of actual earthly ministry. Those three years were backed by 30 years of training--and that made all the difference.
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