Hurry Up and Wait! Expect Delays!

Ever played that game?  The "hurry up and wait" game?  I was playing it on the freeway from Atlanta just this afternoon.  I was zipping in and out of traffic, trying to get past all of the slow cars, only to get 5 miles up the road where a lane was shut down because a car had caught on fire...and as all of the traffic came to a standstill, I found myself waiting...in the middle of it...unable to move!  Frustrating...but there was nothing I could do about it except embrace it.  I was where I was and no amount of wishing would move me an inch closer or a minute faster towards my goal.

I began to think of all the times I play the "hurry up and wait" game and how it really is rather stupid.  Yet I do it all the time.  Like on airplanes.  As soon as the aircraft comes to a complete stop and the little bong sound chimes, I've got that seat belt off, standing up and grabbing my items from the overhead bin like I'm headed to a fire.  The only problem is--everyone else is doing the same thing.  And usually, I'm about 3/4 of the way back, so I have to wait for the whole plane to unload before I can even pick my stuff up.

Or when I'm shopping at Wal-Mart and I only have 15 items (or less)--and I see some elderly grandma with a hand full of coupons and a full grocery cart, meandering towards the same lane I had already picked out.  If I can get away with it, I accelerate rapidly and try to get in ahead of her.  If it is too close to call, and I might get called for being a rude pastor, I back off and start checking all of the other lines to see if there might be some hope of getting in a faster lane.

But I noticed that I'm not alone.  You do it too!  What's THAT all about?  As I sat in traffic today I pondered that question.

I think it comes when we begin to view the world through the eyes of "how will this affect ME?"  And if it affects me adversely, the "I don't like this one bit!"  My focus suddenly shifts from how others are affected to how I'm affected and my selfish nature takes over.  I  become the center of my universe and though I may have a tinge of empathy for the poor person who's car went up in flames, I was more than relieved when the tow truck got it hefted up on top and drove off, clearing the rest of us to accelerate back to normal (and in many cases, above normal) speeds.

I, however, didn't try to zig and zag out of traffic any longer, as I continued to ponder the question: Just what is it about ME that I think I deserve to have life always go my way all of the time?  Just why do I tend to get so upset when I get into the "hurry up" mindset and then am forced to wait?  But most importantly...How do I STOP the "hurry up and wait" mentality in the first place?  How can I come to the point of "going with the flow" instead of blowing my top?

The sign may say "expect delays" but instead of learning to accept that and adjusting my life to reality, I always seem to be shocked when I find myself facing delays.  I grow angry and outraged that my world is being affected.  That I am being forced to wait still again. 

Yet, on the other hand, I readily admit that I want to make a difference in life.  I want my life to have purpose and meaning. That I want my life to count for the cause of God.

Is it conceivable that my expectations are unrealistic?  Can I really have it both ways?  Can I be "king of the road" and serve another King at the same time? Could it be that the reason  I get so upset at the "hurry up and wait" game is because I believe, deep down, without question, that it really should be all about me after all?  Of course I would never say it out loud...or would I?  Perhaps my loudly yelling at the other "idiots on the road", or muttering and sighing loudly as grandma goes through all of her coupons is my subtle way of telling the world that I sincerely believe that I really should be the most important person in the room or on the road?

Wasn't it Jesus who really addressed the problem head on when his disciples asked the question about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom?  Do you remember what Jesus told them?

Matt 20:25 But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Among you it will be different!  Is it possible that the delays of life could actually aid me in developing meaning and purpose?  Could it be that God designed the delays because He is more interested in my holiness than He is my happiness?  Is my whining and complaining really only showing God where MY heart is rather than pointing out how stupid everyone else appears to me or how they bother me, or even annoy and disgust me?  I think so.  The angry, griping, or whiney words I say really are more a statement about me and where my heart is than it is about those who annoy me.  And scripture would bear this out.

Luke 6:45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

So how you and I handle the "hurry up and wait" game really reveals our hearts as well as our characters.  I don't know about you...but I want what flows from my heart to reveal a Savior, not a slime ball.  A character of distinction rather than corruption.  A heart full of love for God and others, not so focused on myself that my short-sightedness eclipses someone else's view of God.  Which brings to mind one other text...

Is. 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. 

Teach me Lord, to wait!  And then let me soar!

T-Ball and the Road of Love

A few years back, singer, songwriter and story teller Bill Harley, was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.  He told a story of a young girl who ended up rejecting the expectations of those around her because she loved with abandon.  Here is her story as told by Bill Harley.

Last year, my young son played T-ball…Needless to say, I was delighted when Dylan wanted to play.  Now on the other team there was a girl I will call Tracy. Tracy came each week.  I know, since my son’s team always played her team.  She was not very good. She had coke-bottle glasses and a hearing aids on each ear.  She ran in a loping, carefree way, with one leg pulling after the other, one arm windmilling wildly in the air.

Everyone in the bleachers cheered for her, regardless of what team their progeny played for.  In all the games I saw, she never hit the ball, not even close.  It sat there on the tee waiting to be hit and it never was.  Sometimes after 10 or 11 swings, Tracy hit the T ( in T-ball, the ball sits on a plastic tee, waiting for a batter to hit the ball, which happens once every three batters).  The ball would fall off the tee and sit on the ground six inches in from home plate.  “Run! Run” yelled Tracy’s coach, and Tracy would lope to off towards first, clutching the bat in both arms, smiling.  Someone usually woke up and ran her down with the ball before she reached first.

Everyone applauded.

The last game of the season, Tracey came up and through some fluke, or simply a nod towards the law of averages, she creamed the ball.  She smoked it right up the middle, through the legs of 17 players.  Kids dodged as it went by or looked absentmindedly at it as it rolled unstopped, seemingly gaining speed, hopping over second base, heading into center field.  And once it reached there, there was no one to stop it.

Have I told you that there are no outfielders in T-ball?  There are for three minutes in the beginning of every inning, but then they move into the infield to be closer to the action, or at least, to their friends.

Tracy hit the ball and stood at home, delighted.  “Run!” yelled her coach.  “Run!”  All the parents, all of us, we stood and screamed, “Run, Tracy, Run, Run!”  Tracy turned and smiled at us, and then, happy to please, galumphed off to first. The first base coach wave his arms ‘round and ‘round when Tracy stopped at first.  “Keep going Tracy, keep going! Go!”  Happy to please, she headed to second.  By the time she was halfway to second, seven members of the opposition had reached the ball and were passing it among themselves.  It’s a rule in T-ball—everyone on the defending team has to touch every ball.

The ball began to make it long and circuitous route toward home plate, passing from one side of the field to the other. Tracy headed for third.  Adults fell out of the bleachers.  “Go, Tracy, Go!”  Tracy reached third and stopped, but the parents were very close to her now and she got the message.  Her coach stood at home plate calling her as the ball passed over the first basemen’s head and landed in the fielding team’s empty dugout.  “Come on Tracy!  Come on, baby!  Get a home run!”

Tracy started for home and then it happened.  During the pandemonium, no one had noticed the twelve-year-old geriatric mutt that had lazily settled itself down in front of the bleachers five feet from the third base line.  As Tracy rounded third, the dog, awakened by the screaming sat up and wagged its tail at Tracy as she headed down the line.  The tongue hung out, mouth pulled back in an unmistakable canine smile, and Tracy stopped, right there.  Halfway home, thirty feet from a legitimate home run, she stopped.

She looked at the dog.  Her coached yelled, “Come on Tracy!  Come on home!”  He went to his knees behind home plate pleading.  The crowd cheered, “Go, Tracy, Go! Run!”  She looked at the adults, at  her own parents shrieking and catching it all on video.  She looked at the dog.  The dog wagged its tail.  She looked at her coach. She looked at home.  She looked at the dog.  Everything went into slow motion.  She went for the dog!  It was a moment of complete stunned silence.  And then, perhaps, not as loud, but deeper, longer, more heartfelt, we all applauded as Tracy fell to her knees to  hug the dog.  Two roads diverged on a third-base line.  Tracy went for the dog.”

It occurs to me that two roads diverge in each of our lives.  One is the road of hurry, worry and passionless living. The other is the road of love.  A place where we can rediscover the awe and wonder of living.  Where we can take the dull grays of our existence and bring the color alive again.  Will we go for the safe, predictable road society lays out for us, or will be go for the One we love, Jesus who bids us come and savor life?  The world will be yelling “Come on, be sensible.”  Jesus says, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Now that’s awesome!