The Ripening Process

So, here's a metaphor for you.

Waiting on God is similiar to dating your future spouse.

What if you met someone and somehow knew instantly that he or she was your future spouse? What if you married them the same day you met them and didn't date -- if just skipped the dating because he or she was the one?

My point is, even if he that person IS your future spouse, if you jumped into marriage without dating them and building a friendship - would you really end up with the relationship/marriage you want? Chances are, you wouldn't have the same relationship if you married them the day you met them as you would if you married them after dating and building a foundation. (I know here, as in any example, that there are exceptions to the rule, and that there's undoubtedly some couple out there that got married after knowing each other for like a minute and they're deliriously happy and holy, etc, etc, which is awesome, but my point is:) The dating is actually important, because it prepares you and builds up foundations and gets you ready for the next step.

We all, I think, just as humans, want to skip the waiting and just get to the prize - but the question that gets overlooked is, could we handle the prize if we got it right away?

I think we need time to grow and let God prepare our hearts so we can handle what we're asking for... that we are asking God for these amazing things (that, trust me, we SHOULD be asking for, because we're His CHILDREN, His DAUGHTERS, His SONS, but don't even get me started on the ok-ness and the that's-RIGHT!-ness of asking God for things that we want... as long as He trumps everything else and we're not using Him as a means to an end... but that's a soap box in and of itself... just see Psalm 37:4, Ephesians 3:19-21 and John 16:24) ...anyway, we're asking for these amazing things, and just like a dessert that needs time to bake, the things that we want I think need time to bake and ripen (because God is going to give us the best "dessert" out there - I'm not praying for Hostess snacks here, people. I want God's Crème brûlée.) ...and we ourselves need to grow and ripen into the kind of people that are spiritually strong enough to handle what we're asking for - sometimes I wonder if I'm a toddler asking for a motorcycle, and God's like, "Sure! ......In fifteen years." You know? It's not like the answer is no just because the answer isn't right away. Sometimes God would be a bad parent if He let us use the Ginsu knives before we're ready.

[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah's impatience, saying]
If you have raced with men on foot and they have
tired you out, then how can you compete with horses?
And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace
where you feel secure, then what will you do
[when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted
by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?
[Jeremiah 12:5]

Someday I'll run with horses, but not until I'm ready... not until I can run with what I've got and not get tired.

Until then, I will endure the spiritual growth pains and keep running the race. I will "press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward." (Philippians 3:14)

Let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance
(unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
[Hebrews 12:1-2]