The Tic-Toc Factor

Healing takes time.  I realize that I don’t know your wounds or the circumstances that caused them.  I don’t know the particulars of your private struggles or the pain that pushed you into the dark.  But I do know this:  Our God heals.  Our God restores.  Our God redeems.  Our God makes all things new.  He asks us to choose His healing and then surrender to his process.  But we cannot rush through ten steps and expect to be healed.  We cannot microwave what generations have watched God do over time.  There is not high-speed internet access to all the answers.  There is no supplement at the health-food store for soul filling.  This kind of discipleship and growth requires a concerted effort over time. Excerpted from When Wallflowers Dance:  Becoming a Woman of Righteous Confidence.

I often say that every woman (and man) is in a state of becoming.  From the time we are conceived to the right now moment of our lives we are becoming something, hopefully something positive and fuller in Christ.  That means that all of our faults and failures and points of deliverance are becoming healed the moment we cast those cares upon Christ.  But if that’s not enough to shout about, even those things you think you’ve mastered, done well and perfected, they are getting better too.  So what that means is that in all areas and aspects of your life, you, beloved of God, are becoming.

I think when we are having struggles we think about the scripture in second Corinthians that says that if any many remains in Christ he is a new creature and we stop and shout right there!  Now, I’m not saying that little phrase doesn’t deserve a shout, but in the process of shouting we kind of omit the last part of that scripture in the “mist” of our tears of happiness.  The last part says all things are become new.  Becoming is a state of being.  It’s continues; it takes place over time.  And sometimes our deliverance, our breakthrough, our parting of the sea takes more time than we would like.

Usually when things aren’t happening fast enough for me, I have to remind myself that I’ve not considered the tic-toc factor.  I call it this because sometimes when I’m real still and waiting for that magnanimous move of God to happen, it’s like I can actually hear the ticking of God’s clock as He’s doing His clean up work in my life.  And I must admit, though I’m comforted by the fact that God is getting my “due season” on point, the sound of the deliverance clock ticking can get me down.  I’m ready for the alarm to go off, for the beeping of the micro-wave to let me know that my issue is “ready.”  But just as it takes time to build up to a problem it takes time to solve it.  The real test is in how we wait when the clock is ticking.

Quite a few weeks ago, I mentioned to one of my colleagues that I was in my Job phase.  “Really,” she said, “Well, if you’re talking about being patience, Job wasn’t really that patient.”  I said, “you know what, you’re right.  Job was kind of whiny while he waited.”  So really, my response to my struggle was more like Job than I cared to admit.  While my deliverance clock was ticking away, I was whining away, complaining even, all up in God’s face whining, “Are we there yet?  When will it be over?  How long now, Daddy?  Why me?”  I wasn’t even waiting gracefully, let alone patiently.

After weighing in the tic-toc factor I surmise that rather than sitting around listening to the ticking I need to do some constructive waiting.  I don’t have to sit like a hermit crab while I’m waiting on my deliverance to come.  I don’t have to put on my mourning clothes and cover my fro with ashes while God’s sending my worked out problem on down to me.  I don’t have to listen to my accusers ask me “What did you do to deserve this?”

Unh-unh.  Instead of listening to the tic-toc as a long annoying sound that makes me nervous, I add a little rhythm to my walk of life using the tic-toc as my syncopated beat, the drum beat that keeps me going with the knowledge that my breakthrough is definitely on the way, cause as long as the clock is ticking something is happening, and in due time I’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Sometimes, when I’m cooking my baby boy, Quincy comes in over and over saying “Is it done yet?  Is dinner ready yet?  When can I eat?”  After answering him in my best mommy voice “Not yet baby.  Be patient honey.  I’ll call you when it’s ready, sweety,”  I finally give him an agressive, “It’s not ready yet, now get out of this kitchen and do something with yourself!”  I imagine when I’m petitioning God in my little whiny voice He’s telling me the same thing, “Girl, get on up.  Get out of the midst of this problem, and do something with yourself!  I’ll call you when it’s ready!”

That’s what we should all do while we wait.  Do something Godly with ourselves.  The spiritual realm doesn’t stop just because we have a problem.  Our entire life doesn’t shut down when one issue crops up in a specific area.  Most times, there is something else that we can continue to do and do well.  So as you wait on the prescription to your problem, go do something with yourself.

Blessings,

DiAnne