Young, Dumb, and Probably Don't Look So Good Either

I am young.

From a human perspective, this is not true. I'm middle aged now. Being older than middle aged is in sight.

But from the perspective of a being who will never cease to exist, I'm quite young.

In fact, little pop quiz for you: What percent of your existence have you used up?

I don't need to make any complicated calculations based on your age, your birth, your expected time before the body reading this dies. It's the same for everyone.

It's 0%.

In fact, it never budges from 0%. You'll never hit 1%. The progress bar of your existence never so much as twitches.

Nevertheless, even by the standards of the young, I am particularly young, because I'm still in my first body. I am still laboring under

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. - 1 Corinthians 13:12

My information diet has been medically restricted by the Great Physician.

And down inside, I have the petulance of a toddler in me.

I want everything now. I want all my prayers answered now. I want all the evil stopped right now. Maybe in the next five minutes if I'm feeling patient, but why wait? I want God to just show up for all of us and show us all about Heaven and Hell right now, and let people chose that way,

"He said to him, 'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'" - Luke 16:31

notwithstanding.

If I pray for healing, I want it fully healed and done now. If I pray for God to improve me in some way, I want it done now.

I'm not just saying this to make a point here... this is something I've struggled with.

But as I approach the tail end of "middle age", I am slowly learning that many things I want to be points in time are actually processes from my time-bound point of view.

The biggest example of this is that if you lived in the 400 years before Jesus came in Israel, you would probably hope and expect that the Messiah would come, and in a moment fulfill all his promises. In a short period of time Israel would go from a vassal state to the ruler of the world with God crushing all their enemies.

Instead: Jesus was born, but was fairly quiet from a historical perspective for nearly 30 years. Then He slowly grew His ministry over about 3 years. Then there was the Crucifixion and Resurrection, which feels pretty quick, even if it was a couple of days. And you might think things would really get going after that...

But instead, there was an interim time while he intermittently visited some of His disciples. Then a waiting period for Pentecost. Then, while from a historical perspective the Church experienced explosive growth, I suspect in the moment it often still felt very slow, as they were chased from Jerusalem by persecution.

Not only was the Messiah's redemption of the world in the time He was on the Earth a process, it is a process that is still ongoing.

When I pray for God to help me with my pride, I am slowly coming to expect it to be a process, an extended series of events, rather than a single event.

While I believe miraculous and sudden healings do occur, I also realize that a lot of prayers for healings are answered as processes.

God isn't working on the time frame the petulant child that I am wants, and that's because His way is better. He works in the world so often through processes. Decades and centuries are nothing for him who knows the end from the beginning.

There are many lessons you could draw from this but the one that I find most impactful is the impact on prayer. God already wants you to come to him persistently, but I've come to see most of my prayer, especially in its capacity as making petitions of and intercessions before God, as applying steady pressure over time rather than a moment's burst. I need to pray in a corresponding manner, with persistence, not in little bursts.