Waiting 101 Series

A Course in Miracles: Waiting 301

05.20.05

Pastor Mark Batterson

This evotional concludes A Course in Miracles. Our next series will be The Game of Life beginning in June. To check out old evotionals visit the evotional archive @ www.theaterchurch.com.

Waiting Rooms

I went to see the doctor on my day off last week and it took two hours and forty-five minutes! It wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to spend my day off. The first thing the doctor said when he came into the exam room was, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” This little part of me was thinking, “Have you never been to see the doctor, Doctor? Are you actually surprised that I had to wait? I’ve never not had to wait inordinate amounts of time. Thanks for the apology, but it seems a little disingenuous.” Someone needs to do a study and find out how much time Americans spend in doctor’s waiting rooms each year.

Then I went to the pharmacy! Let me just say one thing. We put a man on the moon. It just seems to me that there has to be a way to have your prescription ready for you when you leave! How long does it take to put pills in a bottle?

So I spent my entire morning waiting for the doctor and in the afternoon I had to order a replacement remote for our TV. I know this is going to come as a shock, but we spent an entire year getting up and physically changing channels and turning the TV on and off.

So I called an 800-number to order the remote and I got put on hold for about five minutes. Then I spent about ten minutes giving a customer service agent all of my info from address and name to model number and serial number. Then she put me on hold. There are six words that strike fear into the hearts of impatient people: “Can I put you on hold?” I wanted to say “no” but she put me on hold before I had time to answer. And I think it was a rhetorical question.

So she put me on hold and I have this pavlovian fear of getting disconnected and having to go back to the “beginning of the line.” After holding for another seven minutes, which felt like seventeen minutes, she came back on and said, “I’m sorry, Sir. Our system malfunctioned. I need your information again.” It’s always a system error isn’t it? Just once I want someone to say, “It was a human error! I pressed the wrong button and we’ll have to start over again. I’m really sorry.”

So we started over again and about halfway through she put me on hold again! And this time someone else picked up the phone to confirm the model number on my TV. It was the wrong number. To make a long story short, this agent told me I couldn’t reorder my remote from them. I had to call Sears. Nice. Real nice!

I hate waiting. I don’t like waiting for food when I’m hungry. I don’t like waiting in traffic. I don’t like waiting in the store. I don’t like waiting for the light to change. I don’t like waiting for green eggs and ham. I don’t like waiting Sam I Am.

Day Nine

Here’s the thought that ran through my mind all last week: what if the disciples had quit praying on day nine? What if they had given up on day three or day seven or day nine? I think they would have forfeited the miracle that was right around the corner.

I hate waiting, but here’s the deal. If you want to experience a miracle you can’t just seek and believe. You’ve got to be willing to wait. Most of us love quick and easy miracles, but there is usually a season of waiting before a miracle happens. Unfortunately, most miracles are forfeited because we give up too soon. Learning how to wait is as important as learning how to seek and how to believe.

A Thousand Days

II Peter 3:8 says, “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness.”

I love the story I heard a few years ago about the man who was having a conversation with God. The man said, “God, how long is a million years to you?” God said, “A million years is like a second." The man asked, “How much is a million dollars to you?” God said, “A million dollars is like a penny.” The man said, “Could you spare a penny?” God said, “Sure, just wait a second.”