Upon devoting some thought to the sins that beset us, I’ve reached an epiphany. Often times, it isn’t utter “sinfulness” or “depravity” that causes man to become tangled in the same snares time and time again. Yes, we have a flesh nature that we war against every single day. Yes, it plays a part in our vices. I guess what I’m really saying is our besetting sins aren’t usually just “sin for sin’s sake”.
No. The reasoning we use is much more subtle than that. Something much more forgiving in a moment of passion. We want good things. We want a healthy sex life. We want healthy bodies. We want to enjoy life.
We. Can. Not. Wait.
We want to have healthy bodies (not to mention the aesthetic benefits thereof), but working out and eating right takes a lot of time and dedication. So we get surgeries and supplements, and focus on the immediate goal of looking healthy; reaping all the benefits without plowing, sowing, watering, fertilizing, and waiting for the time of harvest.
Or perhaps we react the opposite way – we get tired of the toil of eating healthy. We enjoy the bounty of God’s earth in our foods, but we want too much of it, and we want it too quickly.
We want healthy sex lives, but waiting for marriage is so hard. Or even in a marriage, we want a good sex life with our spouse, but it hasn’t developed into the frequency that we’d prefer. So we settle for pornography, or for an affair outside our marriage.
I think these items illustrate the point pretty clearly. I am reminded of Acts 1, after Jesus has risen from the grave. The disciples are asking Him, “Is now the time that you will restore the kingdom of Israel?”
And Jesus says something very important:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” [italics mine]
The Father has fixed times and seasons by his own authority. Think about that for just a second.
What’s funny here is the disciples were already guilty of the same impatience we experience today. We all want heaven – perfection – right now. And we’ve seen people in the early church use violence, of all things, to try to advance the kingdom. It is an act of impatience. We are so focused on the problems we experience (like an oppressive Roman regime), and on just eradicating those problems altogether, that we lose our awareness of the Holy Spirit’s present power to guide, convict, save, and fulfill.
There’s something to say for being fully present. Living in the Spirit right now.
Don’t lust after what God hasn’t given you. Wait. I heard one person put it this way: “Trade in your lightning bolt for a carrot.” The kingdom, after all, is like a man who planted a seed in the ground. It’s not like a plastic surgery or a microwave.
It’s not time.
Grace and Peace. -jc
