Pick Two

You may have heard this statement: You can have it cheap, you can have it good, you can have it fast. Pick two.

Maybe God has heard it, too.

It had been a rather odd week for me. I had been alone a lot, and also lonely a fair bit, but at the same time I had had some really wonderful hours talking to the Lord. I wouldn't quite call it a wonderful week, nor yet a bad week-it was just odd, and I felt a bit odd, too.

This afternoon, a little weepy, I asked the Lord why He was waiting so long to give me what I'd asked for. I don't remember exactly, but His answer was something along the line of, 'I want to give it to you free.'

Thus this. The Lord Himself wants you to have the best. And He doesn't just want it to be cheap, He wants it to be free. (To you.) Here is the bad news: although He could do it fast (nothing is impossible for Him) He won't. So that leaves you and me with a choice. Free, good, and fast. Pick two.

The price we pay for having the best without a price tag on it is time. So often it is time that kills us. It is time that destroys our self-will. The promise is repeated, over and over again. It's like the infant who wakes in the night. Mom doesn't want him to get in the habit of waking every night, so she doesn't pick him up, she merely pats him on the back and speaks every-so-softly to him. Letting him know she's there; she hears him. Now is not the time to wake up and start the day. It is still night time. Go back to sleep. But I'm here. I'm with you. I know you think you're ready for the day to begin, but in fact you need a few hours more sleep.

The reminders are continual, the comfort is constant-but the fulfillment of the promise isn't yet. Not yet, not yet. When will it be? When you are ready; when it is ready; when all is ready. Then, and only then, will it come.

This is how the "child of the promise" comes. Isaac was good, and he was free to Abraham and Sarah-but he was a very long time coming. Ishmael was okay, and he wasn't quite so slow . but he had a hefty price tag attached. He wasn't the child of God's promise. When God does it, He does it His way, and He makes sure that it's impossible before He takes the next step.

So I may cry-and for all I know, you may cry, too. We may weep and wonder why the promise hasn't been fulfilled yet, and why God is taking so long. In my heart, though, I've made my choice: I want the best, and I want it free.

So I wait.

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