Taking Time to Get There

​When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. [...] So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
-Exodus 13:17-18 (shortened) 

At our church we're working through some of the origin stories of God's people in the Old Testament, reflecting on how they point toward God’s fullness revealed in Jesus. This week we were in the Sinai wilderness, where the Israelites wandered for forty years. 

If you walked across that same desert at a relaxed pace without trying to push yourself too much, you could cross the largest part of the Sinai Peninsula in about three weeks. 

Forty years seems rather.... inefficient. 

But there might be real value in inefficiency. I have a coffee shop about a mile and a half from my house where I meet with people. Lately I've been trying to walk there whenever possible. It takes around twenty-five minutes to get there, so it's within reach if my schedule isn't too tight. It doesn't happen as regularly as I'd like, but I've noticed that taking my time to get places matters more the busier that I am. 
It's difficult to be in a rush when you intentionally choose the slower way to get there. 

It seems that in the Scriptures, and certainly in the way that Jesus meanders through Galilee and Judea, formation is more important than efficiency.

There's value in taking our time to get places. There's value in not rushing the process of transformation. 

I've been walking with people lately who are rethinking their perspectives on things. They are on a journey (aren't we all!?) and the only way to grow is a long, often meandering process. Spiritual formation would be far easier if we just flexed really hard and popped an apple out of our forehead. But bearing fruit, learning who we are, and developing a non-dualistic way of seeing the world.... these things take a lot of time. And it can be very frustrating. 

We naturally resist things that take time. We praise early adopters. We want clarity and efficiency. We're constantly pressured to have a well thought-out opinion on EVERYTHING-- even things we know very little about. 

There's not a lot of grace for people saying, "I'm not sure, I'm still thinking about how I feel on this. I'm taking my time to get there." 

And yet the way of God is often the slow way of growth. God leads us to places where we have to do deep work, wrestling and rethinking and not resolving quickly. It's like the older brother in the prodigal son story. He's standing outside the party, annoyed at his father's willingness to keep extending grace to his brother. But the story doesn't end with him rejecting it all. We have no idea what happened on that journey. I imagine that he stood there thinking for a long time that night before deciding his next step. And I imagine that he kept thinking about things for the rest of his life. 

That's part of the point. 

When I think about taking my time to get places with Jesus, it stirs me in two directions. The first is grace toward myself. It's okay to not have everything figured out immediately. God's grace is sufficient for me, and discipleship is a long process. I'm allowed to rethink things regularly and slowly weigh ideas before embracing or releasing them. I'm allowed to take my time when the world is clamoring for a strong opinion on everything. I'm allowed to walk instead of driving. It's far healthier. 

The second direction is grace for others. After a process of growth and transformation that takes people years, I often notice how impatient or upset they can still be that others can't get there immediately.

Years of honest wrestling and hundreds of conversations and prayers can't be shortchanged. Many times it took friendships with people vastly different from themselves in order to see the world from a new perspective. You can't take years in the wilderness and shrink it down into a quick drive across Sinai.

The long path is how God shapes us all. So God's patience toward us should transfer into patience with others as they walk, too. Besides, each of us is far from having it all figured out (Lord help us)! 

Where can you embrace the scenic route this week? Where can you take a little more time in forming opinions? And where can you extend the same grace to others as they learn and grow? 

Jesus, give me patience for the winding journey, even as I'm trying to make forward progress. 
 
Peace,
Keith