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17443044 Sacred Waiting
Sacred wait
Itoductio
Eternal God, who heals my hurts and restores my soul, teach
me to wait on you not for what I might receive but for what
I might give. Still my hurried heart to hear you this day.
Amen.
W
e live in a world that waits for nothing. Abstinence programs
have limited appeal. Young couples regularly overextend them-
selves. Families live beyond their means. We have, for the most part,shaken off restraint and embraced a stunning degree of materialism,
consumerism, and hedonism. Comfort and pleasure have becomethe supreme goals of life. And we pursue it with credit and debt.In 2006, Americans held about 984 million Visa and Master-
card accounts—three for every man, woman, and child in the
country—and by the end of 2008, the total consumer debt in theUnited States had reached $2.56
trillion
.
1
If we take that staggering
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SACreD WAITIng
gure and spread it across the total population, it means that personal
household debt at that time amounted to about $8,400 for everyindividual. And that excludes any home mortgage debt.
Clever advertising fuels the credit craze by insisting that we
need not wait for what we want. In fact, we can have it now andpay for it later—much later, in some instances.
In past generations, when credit was not so readily available, eating
out, getting gasoline, buying clothes, making small home improve-
ments, and a dozen other regular expenses were all paid for with cash,
or folks waited. Our culture has long since wearied of waiting.The pace of life that we embrace means that every wait rep-
resents a waste of our time. So we grumble when the computer
takes two minutes to boot up. We eat a lot of fast food. We liveattached to our cell phones or BlackBerrys so we can quickly pick
up every call, text message, or email—even while on vacation. We
view the yellow trafc light as an invitation to “put the pedal to
the metal” rather than brake. Then we grow impatient if the trafc
lights remain red for long. Our irritation level rises exponentiallyin checkout lines, train stations, restaurants, and doctors’ ofces— not to mention the dreaded Department of Motor Vehicles. Noneof us likes to wait. There’s simply too much to do!
The PaCe of Life
Until the eighteenth century, the pace of life rarely exceeded the
walking pace of a horse. People traveled short distances at relatively
slow speeds. Or if they went far, they took a long time to do so.
Twenty miles was considered a solid day’s ride. But with the Industrial
Revolution all of that changed. Steam-powered ships, railways, andmass-produced motor vehicles began to accelerate the pace.
In more recent times, that pace has increased even further.In the 1970s, we communicated with letters that we could send
quickly—even overnight—by various mail carriers. In the 1980s,
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17443044 Sacred Waiting
Sacred wait
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| Rating: | (2 Ratings) |
| Upload Date: | 08/01/2009 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
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