Anticipation

Is there anything worse than a sneeze that just won’t come? You step away from the group, cover your nose and mouth with your arm, pause and wait for olfactory outburst but…….nothing. No one “likes” to sneeze, but everyone hates having to sneeze and then not being able.

This is where all the mothers will step in and say, “Yeah, there is something worse than a sneeze that won’t come. Braxton Hicks.” For those wondering who Braxton Hicks is and why he is so awful, he was a nineteenth century English physician, but he wasn’t a bad guy. Braxton Hicks refers to the “practice contractions” that a pregnant woman experiences long before the time to deliver the baby. In other words, it is all the pain of labor and delivery without the joy of the baby to follow. This false labor can actually begin four months before the baby comes.

In either case, sneezing or having a baby, the real problem has to do with unmet expectations and delayed gratifications. Anticipation is a powerful, powerful thing. Anticipation gives us the ability to rise above present circumstances and see beyond. Anticipation is “future fuel” driving us forward and preventing us from becoming bogged down in the doldrums of the present. Like any powerful thing, anticipation can propel us forward when harnessed and channeled, but it can also tear us apart if it's not. The difference between a bomb and a combustion engine is essentially the harnessing or channeling of the explosive energy, and the difference between anticipation creating excitement or anxiety is the same.

Our culture does not encourage delayed gratification, in fact, it does everything possible to encourage instant gratification. Rather than me illustrate it, just pay attention for one day to how many times you will see or hear words like now, instant, express, fast, immediate, or same-day, especially in commercials or advertisements. As 21st century Americans we aren’t accustomed to having to wait for anything and certainly not for very long. If you ever want to conduct an experiment to challenge this assumption, hang out in an express lane that is stalled or a fast food restaurant where the line is moving slowly.

One thing you quickly learn reading the Bible is not to rush God. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient” (2 Peter 3:8-9). God is playing the long game with humanity and that means He tends to speak of things in terms of “in the fulness of time” and “it shall come to pass.” When God looks at time He sees generations not days and centuries not seconds.

Wise parents employ this technique with their children. Many of the things a child desires he only wants because it is right in front of him. If the child has to wait, even if just for a few minutes, often times they completely forget about it, revealing that it wasn’t really important to them or something they needed. The great Father knows this better than any earthly parent. Many have commented that God always answers every prayer, sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes wait. Often times it is wait.

Abraham was told he would become a great nation, would be given the land of Canaan, and that God would redeem humanity through his descendants (Genesis 12:1-3). Although every single one of those promises were kept, not a single one of them were kept for at least 400 years (Exodus 1:7; Joshua 12) and the final one would not be fulfilled for roughly 2,000 years (Matthew 1). Abraham had to wait 25 years for God’s promise of a son to be fulfilled. Bottom line: God rarely uses the express lane, so get comfortable, but don’t get too comfortable. Don’t get so comfortable you fall asleep. While it is true that God deals in the realm of anticipation and delayed gratification, when He moves He moves quickly.

As we saw in the passage from 2 Peter 3 above, God’s judgment is delayed because of His patient love, though sadly this prompts some to scoff at the idea of his judgment, as they become convinced His delay means He won’t act (2 Peter 3:3-4). This is despite the fact that Scripture is filled with warnings not to “fall asleep” but to “watch” because the Lord will come “like a thief in the night.” The point of these warnings and reminders is that we should use our anticipation of the Lord’s return to fuel our drive to stay diligent and busy in what we are supposed to do. During his time in exile on Patmos, John prayed “Come Lord Jesus” but he also used the time to write the grand and vivid panorama of history that we know as the book of Revelation. Sitting in Roman imprisonment, Paul longed to depart this life and be with Jesus, knowing it was far better (Philippians 1:23), but ultimately he decided it was better to wait and remain working in the kingdom on earth, writing 25% of the New Testament following this. John and Paul used their anticipation as motivation to fuel their faithful labors, and we should do the same.

Everyone wants things to get back to normal, and they almost certainly will, but none of us knows for certain exactly when that will be. We will have to wait. Even when government restrictions are lifted, there will likely be a time of adjustment where people have to grow comfortable again with things we’ve been conditioned to caution — large gatherings, social contact, crowded restaurants, etc. Until then we wait and we anticipate, and hopefully we use this anticipation to fuel our efforts to be busy about our Father’s business in ways that might get neglected due to our busyness in normal situations.

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8