Hush the Rush
by Becky Rule

It has been said that ministry is for the minister. Oh, how that has nagged at me! I am coming to understand that ministry purifies the one who is ministering. One aspect of our purification involves dying to our reputations while waiting on God. There is great pressure in our performance-driven and success-oriented society to move ahead, even before hearing from God. In order to handle a complicated life, we have become more complicated. We prefer to adopt and apply policies and plans rather than taking time to take situation by situation to God in prayer. To compete with the world, we make excessive strides to be polished, qualified and professional. What a difficult thing to withstand! If we can’t have everything under control, we want to at least appear that we do. Appearing organized and orderly, motivated, hard-working, competent, enthusiastic, courageous, and wise (fill in your own list of top ten Christian character qualities) can easily become one of the gods of this age. Pursuit of these things often drives us, pressing us to take things into our own hands. We are often willing to sacrifice hearing from God in order to stay on schedule or to pursue and maintain our standards of "excellence."

I have discovered that waiting on God is to risk appearing disorganized, unmotivated, and irresponsible at times. It astounds me that God is so absent of rush! I am continually amazed at the speed (or lack thereof!) at which He does things. Sometimes He seems unbearably slow to me, and dare I say last minute? A common phrase among us as Christians is "He is never late and never early"; but what is our response to a God who operates that way? Most times I find it is a stress to have to slow down and wait! We’re tempted to wonder if He is there, to feel He doesn’t care.

I find such courage in the illustration of how we as Christians are like fruit. We don’t want a piece of fruit that is rock-hard and resistant; we search for pieces that are ripe and yielding. It takes a piece of fruit its literal lifetime to form and ripen. That does not happen overnight. Likewise, God uses situations and circumstances to squeeze us, searching for a yielding maturity. May we close our ears to the pressured rush and the threat that reputations are at stake. Father, as we surrender to You completely, may it be done to us according to Your word. (Luke 1:38).