![watch clock[1]](https://powts.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/watch-clock1.jpg)
Ever been delayed? It can be somewhat frustrating can’t it? Today, I unintentionally delayed someone who wanted a telephone interview. At least it was supposed to be a taped interview and not a Live On Air interview. That wouldn’t have good for anyone. Not that it was good for me to miss the call this morning and I certainly was berating myself for the error and then I prayed about it. ‘Lord, help me place this circumstance in your care.’
Delays are frustrating – no doubt about it. The verse “All things work for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) rolled through my mind shortly after my prayer. I believe we’ll manage to get this interview rescheduled. And if for some reason it isn’t scheduled, then perhaps the Lord has a different plan than what the interview was about.
Stories about delays are written in the Bible too. Mary and Martha were distressed when Jesus took so long to come their brother Lazarus when they sent for Jesus. They told Jesus their brother might not have died if Jesus had come right away. Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb and asked everyone to take his grave-clothes off. Wow – that wasn’t a bad thing!
In the Old Testament it, when you read through the story about Joseph’s brother selling him off and telling their father that their brother died (how terrible is that?!) it certainly must have seem to Joseph that God was delaying just a tad bit too long in reuniting him with his father – but in the end of the story – the timing is perfect and Joseph is able to save his family from famine because the Lord had been with him all those years.
So who is to say if the delays in our life are timely or untimely? If all our lives are intertwined and the Lord is in the center of clock radiating out to all of us, if to him a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day – well, then if an interview is rescheduled to another day and time next week I guess it’ll be ok, because ultimately – God is the one in control and his is a grace filled kind of control.
Having been a manager of a finance office, a secretary who scheduled appointments, a patient in the doctor’s office, a mother of 4 teens, a person who lives where late starts and snow days occur every winter, whose husband was late to church the day of her wedding and whose honeymoon was cancelled due to a snow storm that closed down the entire interstate system, having been a self-employed direct sales representative, and a pastoral care giver I understand the frustrations that delays can give a person, but I also have learned how to make good come out of those situations.
God’s timing is perfect and so are His plans.
Do you have story you can share about a delay that resulted in a great outcome?
Praying Our Way Through Stress 
I am currently in a delay and it is very difficult not to react like the people in the wilderness, with grumbling and complaining. In the meantime my stress grows, and there appears to be no answer in sight. Walking by faith is like walking the highwire without a net. Heart-pumping for sure.
It’s good to have the Lord pumping up our hearts! I understand what you mean about how difficult it is to not grumble and complain. In the world, we have clocks and deadlines, but God’s clock is so different, and I think he delays sometimes because he is slow to anger and abounding in love and patience.
Lord, help us to be slow to anger and quick to love!