"Waiting on Jesus?"

Microwaves started it all. Now we have high speed Internet, 4G’s, as well as “Apps” that help us upload and browse within seconds. We have drive thru restaurants, banks, and drug stores. We tap our foot impatiently in the twenty items or less express lane. We now have self checking to make that go faster. We can send and receive money quickly on our phones. Credit cards can now simply be tapped instead of swiped. “I mean who has time to swipe anymore?” Before Christmas is over good, Valentine’s Day items are on display and for sale. Before you know it, it’s New Year’s Eve again. Then we are all saying, “Where did the time go?” There is an old saying “time waits for no man;” seems like to me, man has a problem waiting for time. I recently watched a movie entitled “In Time” starring Justin Timberlake. Without giving away the movie, let me just share the premise. Justin’s character lived in a world without paper money. See, everyone born lived a carefree life until the age of twenty-five. At that moment, on that day, they are given twenty-five more years to live. No one was supposed to live past the age of fifty. The way it was controlled was this, on their twenty-fifth birthdays, twenty-five years appeared as a ticking-down clock on the forearm so that everyone could keep up with just how much “time” they had to live. Once you got a job, you weren’t paid in cash, you were given more time. The kicker was everything you needed from a stick of gum, riding public transportation, buying groceries, or even paying your rent was paid for with your time. So if you worked eight hours, you might get paid twenty-four hours but your car note might cost you a week of your life. It was a very good and interesting movie. It got me to thinking about how valuable our time is and how often we take it for granted with our impatience, especially when it comes to trusting God. My Bishop recently preached a message entitled “Only Believe.” He read Mark 5:21-23; 35-42 which tells the story of a synagogue ruler named Jairus. Jairus came seeking Jesus because his daughter was sick. Mark 5:24 tells us that after Jairus knelt and begged Jesus to come heal his daughter, Jesus started following him to his house to do just as he had requested. Here’s what stuck out to me in the story. On the way to Jairus’ house Mark 5:25-34 tells us how Jesus was, as usual, surrounded by a crowd of people all seeking Him for different things. In the midst of this crowd was a sickly woman with an issue of blood, who was determined, like Jairus, to get a miracle from the Messiah that day. She touched Jesus and was immediately made whole. Jesus felt virtue leave His body and His attention left Jairus and turned to finding out whose faith had stirred Him in such a way. Now most of us know the rest of the woman’s story, but I’m interested in Jairus. Put yourself in his position. You have traveled a long way to seek Jesus so that He can come and heal your child who is on the brink of death, and He has agreed. Then suddenly His attention is drawn elsewhere. What do you do? Well, Jairus couldn’t “google” up a plan “B” or text someone else for help. He had no “plan b” Jesus was “it.” All he could do now was…wait. It was like “this chick just broke in line at a crowded Black Friday sale!” There Jairus was, no doubt, feeling relief having the Almighty following him home to meet his need; and “wham” out of nowhere, he turns around and Jesus is doing something else. But Jairus, unlike many of us, didn’t get mad and say “hey I was here first, wait your turn lady!” He didn’t get upset and storm off saying “forget it then Jesus, I’ll find another way to do what I need.” [Anybody guilty?] NO! Jairus waited. However matters didn’t get better while he waited they got worse. As he stood and watched the lady who broke in line; not only get healed but be made whole, he had a visitor of his own. Mark 5:35 tells us how people who had been at Jairus’ house came to inform him that his daughter, who had been sick when he left, was now dead. Have you ever felt like you have done everything you were supposed to do, but it still wasn’t enough? Have you ever stepped out on faith, sought and found Jesus, worshipped at His feet; yet before your breakthrough came there were people telling you to “let it go.” Has anyone ever come to tell you just to give up because no matter what you had done, it was too late for your miracle to take place? I can’t tell you how many times I have heard those words myself. So what do you do now, all you “Jarius” out there? What do we do when things don’t go as planned, when that desire didn’t manifest when we thought it should have? The Bible doesn’t say that Jairus said one word. In my opinion that’s good and that is exactly what we should do. When dream-busting haters tell us “you’ll never be that,” “you can’t do that,” or “you’ll never have that”, don’t say a word. Keep the faith and “show” them. After all the old saying goes “actions speak louder than words.” Better yet, the Bible tells us in James 2:17 “faith without works is dead.” Here’s the next part of Jairus’ story that I like. Mark 5:36“as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, (by those who came from Jairus’ house) He said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” There Jesus was in a crowd of people, all wanting something from him at the same time. He was healing a lady but He still had his mind on Jairus. Why don’t we realize that sometimes? Just when it seems God is not listening, or when it feels like He’s not going to move, we have to trust that He is. Maybe He’s just being quiet long enough to see what we are going to do. Perhaps He’s stepping back to test us and find out if we’ll “only believe” or if we’ll give up on Him and either try to do it ourselves or find someone else to do what we need. Psalms 27:14 says “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage. And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say on the Lord.” That is what Jairus did. As a result you’ll find in Mark 5:37-43 that Jairus’ patience and faith caused a mighty move of God. Jesus went to his house, put out all the negative folks (take note of that, we need to do that also), and He healed Jairus’ daughter. This shut and opened the mouths of all the naysayers. Can you imagine how shocked those mourning a dead little girl must have been to see her running and playing in the yard the next day? Now imagine the faces of all your haters and those who doubt your calling in Christ when He elevates you to the fullest. So twentieth-century generation of cyber babies, can we take the time to stop texting, updating statuses, and blogging long enough to seek the real “brain” of the World Wide Way? Can we seek Him with a mindset of faith, to patiently “wait on Jesus?” However during trying times the question remains are we waiting on Jesus or is He waiting on us?
Think about it. Published in “On the Rocks Arrest” & Soul Fusion Online Magazine