Delay

In Antarctica Lake Vida is called an ice museum that preserves biological history. It has the thickest lake ice ever recorded--over fifty feet deep. Scientists from the University of Illinois recently probed to collect cores of ice from near the bottom--the oldest portion of the ice pack. The probes to that depth revealed the presence of microbes, such as cyanobacteria, frozen for the past 2,800 years! More amazing than their existence at that depth was the fact that, when those ancient frozen microbes were thawed out, they showed every sign of life by their activity and growth, as if restored by a kind of resuscitation from their twenty-eight centuries of hibernation! It’s hard to imagine that those very microbes had already been there for eight centuries before the time of Christ!

It’s a fanciful thought, but it would almost seem as if those billions of microbes of various species had to wait, as it were, to be resuscitated by the scientists to a renewed life. Meanwhile countless billions of other microbes are still waiting there for some possible future drastic climate change to restore them from their frozen grave to a state of growth, movement, and even reproduction. This might even provide a kind of prototype of the delay that we must endure until the time assigned for our own future bodily resurrection. Alternately, it’s also reminiscent of Paul’s “death-to-life” postrepentance advice: “Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6:13).

The Divine Sculptor took eons to carve the Grand Canyon, and much longer to form the earth that supports the life we now enjoy. In some respects the Lord of the universe doesn’t seem to be in any hurry. Yet in other respects he does show a sense of urgency in demanding prompt action on our part. For instance, he doesn’t like delay in our response to his offers of grace. For emphasis, a double reference is found in Hebrews (3:7 and 3:15, quoting Psalm 95): “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” Certain things God wants to be accomplished today, that is, without delay. In such times of non-delay, faith acknowledges that God is the great “I AM”--the God of now, who is working right now to accomplish his purpose, at this moment and at every moment of our being, in each simple word, thought, and act of our lives.

Attuning ourselves to God’s timing is a significant expression of trusting his sovereign will and wisdom to decide not just the “how” and the “why” of events, but also the “when.”

Typically, any delay in the fulfillment of our own plans and hopes is frustrating; the Lord also must experience a kind of divine frustration when his plans are delayed by our resistance to them. He yearns for us to trust in his wisdom that designs the proper time for the unfolding of his will. That’s when we are asked to try, with trusting faith, to think with the mind of God, as it were.

Our faith, if trusting, knows that the Lord of time wants to be the Lord of our time, as we strive confidently to conform our timing with his in every event of our lives, from the timing of a job loss to the timing of our death, or the death of our loved ones. Especially when we are victims of a human injustice, like slander, being fired unjustly, embezzlement, or rape, justice may seem to be forever delayed. That’s the time to cling to the psalmist’s words: “Do not say, ‘I’ll pay you back for this wrong!’ Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you” (Ps 20:22, emphasis mine).

It requires trust to wait as long as God delays, but it also requires trust not to delay when his will is to be executed. Only with fathomless trust could Abraham not delay in preparing to slay his own son at God’s behest.

Try to empathize, if you can, with the thinking of the God who refuses to hurry, addressed in the prayer of Moses, quoted in Psalm 90:4: “a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Ps 90:4). This is reflected in the lengthy delays between each step of salvation history: First, God “announced the gospel in advance to Abraham” (Gal 3:8, emphasis mine). From that time, amazingly, he delayed 430 years before executing the second step in that plan, the Mosaic Law (see v. 17). And then he delayed another two thousand years before implementing the third step in the plan of salvation, the epochal event of the Incarnation: “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under that [Mosaic] law” (Gal 4:4, emphasis mine).

We’re now in the midst of still another delay--a twenty-century delay so far--before the fourth step in salvation history, namely, the parousia or second coming of Christ, which Paul refers to as “the blessed hope--the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Ti 2:13). For those who patiently accept this delay, yet with a holy expectancy rather than frustration, the paycheck is worth waiting for: “He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb 9:28, emphasis mine). To reassure us of its eventuality--and thus provide a bulwark for our trust in God—the New Testament refers to it, directly or indirectly, 318 times!

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.