Delays

I once watched a film that told me that whenever I get all crumby about the world I should go to an airport. It’s apparently there that I can see through reunions and various displays of affection that “love actually is all around.” Now, I love the hope and spirit of optimism that surrounds this observation, but in all honesty I must disagree with the prime minister. A couple of weeks ago I sat in the Oklahoma City airport for about nine hours to test this theory. Okay, not really. I sat in the Oklahoma City airport because my flight was delayed, but I can testify that I was there for nine hours.

Rather than seeing tearful smiles, deep gazes, and reunions that would make your heart flutter away; I was confronted with rolling eyes, under-breath cussing, cranky phone calls, and people whose god was their schedules. To a certain extent, I could understand their frustration. After being in the airport for about 7 hours, I began to turn a little restless myself. And I do realize that a fallen world will produce frustrations such as these and pretty nasty reaction to them.

But suddenly, without any particular reason or source, a small breeze of peace began to gently blow into my heart. I began to look around at everyone, at tired people waiting for information at the desk, at a woman sitting by a child as he was eating some ice cream, at a man holding a small chihauhau in his coat pocket, at the front desk as airport people frantically typed in information often with two fingers. It was at this moment that I was suddenly reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine. He made the simple observation that the weather was inescapably uncontrollable and unpredictable. Even in Oklahoma, where I am from and where I am told the ‘weather experts’ are, the weather is still unpredictable and uncontrollable there.

You see, friends, the reason why my flight was delayed was for the simple reason that a rather large thunderstorm decided to plant itself right on top of the Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which was the place of my connecting flight. The airport was apparently shut down for about three hours delaying flights across the country. As I reflected on this and the many upset people at that airport that Tuesday I began to think about all of the technology that we have created for ourselves. We have built huge flying machines that can turn fourteen-hour trips into two-hour trips. We have built intricate computer systems that allow thousands of these machines to lift off everyday without running into each other. We have built elaborate airports with restaurants, televisions, and comfortable chairs in order to make our stay in airports as comfortable and as similar to home as possible. Yet, when a simple storm, something we have all seen before and are quite familiar with, decides to plant itself in just the right place, all of our plans, our schedules and our technology are useless. And we are inevitably delayed.

But as I sat there with that breeze of peace still blowing on my heart and a crying baby next to me, I couldn’t help but be thankful that we are not in control. I am thankful that we do not always get what we want and that delays come. It is a good thing. I repeat: IT IS A VERY GOOD THING that we are ultimately not in control. It is a good thing that we cannot control and predict the weather; it’s a good thing that we can’t control and predict God.

Delays mean waiting, and waiting is something we have all experienced. I read a book recently that said, “We often equate waiting with God’s inactivity.” But when you read the scriptures, something is happening when we wait. Isaiah 30:15,18 says:

“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it…Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!’”

This seems to suggest to me that salvation happens when we are waiting. Changing and God’s favor happens when we wait. God is actually doing something in the midst of this waiting, and those who wait are actually becoming something. In the waiting there is a growing in relationship with God. How do you view waiting? Is it a time of looking forward to something in the future or is it a time to focus on the now, on the significant change that is happening now? I wrote a short meditative song not long ago on this theme of waiting:

I will wait on you Lord
I will wait on you Lord
I will wait on you Lord
I will wait on you Lord

It’s in the waiting that you are changing
It’s in the waiting that you’re rearranging
It’s in the waiting that you’re preparing
It’s in the waiting that you are saving…

Delays are a significant part of the rhythm of life, the sounds of dissonance before the beautiful resolution in a symphony. Delays remind us that we are not in control, that there is One who knows better. Thank God for thunderstorms. Thank God for delays.