This calls for patience!
Nicky and I have been doing some work on patience recently—both cultivating it, thinking about it theologically and from a systems perspective. We have been preparing some material together and it has been a lot of fun but it has also been profoundly helpful for the way it has given us insight into the world today.
Having to wait or be patient are increasingly meaningless ideas. We are being inculturated into not having to wait for anything—and when I say anything, I mean anything.
We call our life better because we can order 300 rolls of toilet paper, choose tonight’s Netflix viewing, order breakfast, turn off the lights upstairs from my phone, message the school canteen, order tonight’s wine and subscribe to 17 YouTube channels all in a matter of moments.
Just last week Nicky ordered two air mattresses from Amazon in the morning and they were at our house ready to use in the afternoon. In today’s world, if you want it, you can get it, now. Instant gratification and it has become the mantra of the masses and when we cannot have what we want right now, we feel annoyed, ripped off, frustrated and angry. When a cat video on YouTube takes more than 3 seconds to load, 50% of people have already moved on and tried something else.
How are you going with patience? God calls us to be patient and he equips us to be patient through the fruit of the Spirit. But are you walking in step with the Spirit?
Sometimes what we need is a bigger perspective and I think we get that in the book of Revelation where God unveils mysteries and we see Jesus. In Revelation you gaze time and again behind the curtain of the world to the spiritual powers that besiege our society and are opposed to the growth of God's Kingdom.
In Chapter 17 we meet a prostitute dressed in purple and scarlet, riding a 7 headed beast with horns, drunk on the blood of God's people that she is drinking from a golden cup. She rules over kings and nations and people and guides them away from God with her own authority and tempting words. What on earth is she meant to represent?
Well, a careful reading of the chapter reveals that she is all that calls people to organise themselves independently of God. She is everything that works against God's Kingdom and for the destruction of the Gospel and those who hold true to it. She is a vast power that has turned and is turning everything against Jesus.
An example of her power was summarised by Professor Haidt of NY University when he said, "The rising intolerance of secular fundamentalists is akin to a new religion rising to consume or eradicate all religion." In such a movement the woman with the golden cup is rising up to destroy clear Gospel preaching and replace it with vacuous philosophies that promise much but deliver destruction.
But we could list a myriad of people and activities, events and frustrations, big and small, that all have the scarlet clad woman as their driving force but the message of revelation is not "expose evil" but "be patient because Jesus wins!" Christian people don't put their trust in society to fix society's problems. They patiently wait for the return of Jesus who will replace this world with a perfect new world and thus fix all its problems.
To this end, in response to the promise of Jesus that he is coming soon, we pray the words of Revelation 22:20, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." Lifting your eyes to this perspective gives you a new view of the world—let’s not expect it to be perfect, but let’s expect it to require patience, knowing the next one will be glorious and full of joy.
Come Lord Jesus, come indeed!
