Delayed Promise

I dropped my Destination Imagination team off at Lowes Building Supply store so they could come up with creative ideas of how to construct a realistic set for their science/performance project using inexpensive and unexpected building supplies. For example, I still cannot look at plumbing hoses and not think "elephant trunk." I hoped the team would have similar wild associations and come up with clever ideas and unusual uses of materials. I told them they had an hour and a half, and I would just do laps around the parking lot while waiting for them. I expected them to last only about 40 minutes.

I started my laps. Forty minutes later, not a peep from the team. I walked on and on, growing hungrier and tireder. I began hallucinating about the nearby Burger King and its delicious sweet potato fries. I wanted those sweet potato fries with a vengence, even knowing how terrible they were for me. Many times over the next hour, I veered towards the path to Burger King, but then pulled away, knowing I had a good healthy dinner at home. So, I kept doing laps, as my blood sugar plummeted and my stomach growled. I had no choice but to keep walking. It was cold outside and if I stopped, I knew I would freeze to death, particularly given my emaciated condition and growing malnutrition.

An hour and a half later, my team emerged. They had gotten some ideas, though they didn't share those thoughts with me. Or maybe they did. I was near comatose with starvation so my brain may not have been working. I dropped them all at our Church youth group which they attend every week after our meeting, and chewed on my seatbelt as I drove home.

And then I rushed in the door, expecting my husband, the cook, to have dinner waiting after my hard work with the DI team like he does every evening after my DI meeting. The house was empty, except for the dogs, who were very glad to see me. The cook had been called away to an emergency worship team practice, so I was on my own for dinner.

I could have gotten the Burger King sweet potato fries! I had purposely not gotten those fries, braving death from starvation, just so I wouldn't spoil my dinner. And now there was no dinner.

I have a teenage girl still at home. I want more than anything to raise her so that she loves God, honors His commands, and remains strong in her integrity, excellence, and purity. It is a tall order in today's world. Temptations abound. The smell of Burger King sweet potato fries assault us from every corner! And sometimes, it seems as though all the denial of self satisfaction for the greater good comes to naught. We grow weary with the long and never ending journey. Devouring that which will not ultimately satisfy becomes a powerful temptation! Sometimes we walk into an empty house, devoid of the wafting scent of a prepared healthy dinner waiting for us. We wonder if we should have just succumbed to high calorie, over salted, high cholesterol junk food....

No!

Hold out beloved for that which will truly feed your soul! Don't settle for less, or for the temporal when the eternal is waiting! It may seem that God tarries too long in bringing your reward, but His promises are true and will be fullfilled! Trust Him! Serve Him! In the end, He will not disappoint!

I flung open the refrigerator. It was overflowing with healthy and delicious leftovers. The dogs and I had a feast.

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But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8, 9 NABRE)










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