No Rush

 

Can you imagine Jesus running?

 

God the Father sort of ran one day.

Jesus told a parable about a son (representing us) who took his inheritance early and left home. He wasted the money on wild living, and when he ran out of money he came home to beg for help. But the father (representing God) was watching out for him, and when he saw him in the distance he ran to him. The way God the Father runs to us when he sees us coming back to him. God ran once. When he ran to you, the day you came home.

 

But other than that, don't you get the feeling that Jesus never rushed. Never hurried. Probably never ran.

Jesus always had his stuff together. He always had purpose in what he did. He always knew where he was going and somehow, knew that when he got there would be the perfect time to arrive.

 

The classic example is when Lazarus was sick. Jesus stayed where he was two more days. He knew his dear friend was sick. He knew that he could heal him with a word. (In fact, the story of the Centurion's servant in Matthew 8 teaches us that Jesus didn't even have to go to Lazarus to heal him. He could have done it from where he was). But Jesus left Lazarus unhealed and dying. He left his friends Mary and Martha grieving. Because he had a bigger purpose. Jesus knew that Lazarus had to die so that he could then raise him back to life. Because Jesus had a purpose, he didn't need to rush.

 

But we are different. We rush everywhere. We shovel down our breakfast so we don't miss the bus. We weave in and out of traffic just to save a few minutes. We skip lunch or work late to get more work done so we meet the deadline. And all that really does is gets our adrenaline going and stresses us out.

In one place I lived there was a train every 1-2 minutes in peak hour. And every day I would see people running to the station. I can understand them running if there was a train only every hour. But there was a train almost every minute. There was very literally no need to rush.

 

Have you ever rushed somewhere only to find out that the other person is late too and you didn't need to? Have you ever rushed somewhere and realised that in your rush that you forgot something, so you have to go back and get it? Have you ever rushed and ended up early? All that stress. Completely unnecessary. Needless. You would have been so much better off without it.

 

How much better to trust yourself into God's hands. To accept that God has your life covered. And if you're late, then you're late and God knew it would happen.

Of course I'm not suggesting that we stop trying to be on time. It's polite and caring of others to be on time. Being on time is a good thing. But if things happen outside your control, (perhaps there is an accident on the freeway which slows you down), instead of stressing and rushing around trying to make up for lost time, we stay calm, and arrive when we arrive, trusting God that this was all part of his plan for our day.

 

I seriously cannot imagine Jesus rushing anywhere. So why should I.