His plans do not line up with my calendar. His pace does not keep time with my sense of rhythm. His goals don’t seem to have very clear benchmarks or firm deadlines. His activity seems to move at a snail’s pace. His accomplishments are barely even perceptible, like tiny seeds in the dirt or yeast in a batch of dough.
Like the disciples, I ask questions like, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?” A little while to him can be a long, long, long while for me. It often seems like short-term promises require long-term waiting.
I scratch my head when I read things like, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” To me that always sounds like time is simply irrelevant to God. Why even bother trying to keep track or stay organized or plan ahead?
It’s possible that the single most significant limitation in being human is that we are bound by time. Which poses an immediate challenge when relating to a God who is not at all bound by time. If I am intent on trying to comprehend such a God as a condition for my faithfulness to him, I am going to become nothing but frustrated and disillusioned. Rather, I must somehow learn to also trust him outside of time—outside of all of my oh-so-important plans and goals and calendar entries.
