“Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?...” (Jeremiah 2:25 MSG)

When one waits for an answer, guidance or direction; patience becomes a curse in the eyes of the beholder. There is nothing easy about waiting for the right answer to come at the right time. We are always hoping for quick breakthroughs and fast passes in the world we live in today. There are very few times that the value of patience is emphasised or even sought after.

When I look at the way life was lived in the Bible, they never rushed it; it sometimes took days just to get from one house to the next to have a prayer meeting or a get together. It did not matter how urgent the matter was, it was going to take time to get there. Riding on horseback was one of the quickest ways they could get from one place to the next. Dusty, tired and worn out but never complaining of the life they are living. We are always so rushed to get do everything early and quicker than the person next to us but why don’t we just take a step back and consider another way of life.

Contrary to popular belief, nothing in this life is going to run away, when we go to sleep and get up the next morning it will still be there. We make things bigger than what they are, we make them more urgent than what they were intended to be because we want to impress people, we want to show people that we are sufficient or whatever it is that we are trying to prove. It is worth taking a step back and considers things from another point of view.

A place where…

• we think twice before jumping into decisions and action.
• we take a day or two before deciding on a way forward.
• we have time to sit down with our loved ones and truly listen to what they have to say or to even spend time with doing something we love together.
• work does not have the final say but God and our families gets a much higher weight on the scale of balances in life.

We will not lose a day in our life if we do this, but we might suffer continuous strain in all other areas of our lives and even in ourselves. Nothing will help us to have more time and to take things easier with a wider perspective on life. It will be entirely up to us to make it happen and not to allow the rat race of today to swallow us. Relationships will be much more solid and secure because the importance of the people in our lives will show. It will no longer just be mere words and empty promises but real acts of caring and importance in love. Our lives will speak of true impact because everything we are dealing with will have our full attention and our minds will be much more focused on what we are doing at the time and not on ten millions things about yesterday, today and tomorrow all at the same time.

Jesus was the one person having all the impact the world could ask for. He is the one person spoken of throughout all the ages and still people cannot understand all the aspects about Him as He is just far too extensive in who He is. He did everything He had to do and He did it perfectly. He never rushed anywhere to get it done. He patiently walked where He had to go, even if it would take Him days in a moment of death, He would go and still help others along the way. There is no argument that can prove that the way we are doing things today are better. We are blinding ourselves to the value we could enjoy these days by just taking things slower and not get caught up in the fast lane of everything.

Maybe, the only thing that is necessary at times is to be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). He has got this, after all the rush, He is still in control.

Maretha Retief