Sacred Slow

Those of us who are children of the 50's and 60's can remember the first appearances of what came to be called, "fast food restaurants." I remember the first MacDonald's in our area. It was located on a secondary road, close to a main highway, but unseen by those who traveled it. Even so, it became immensely popular and it wasn't long before it moved up to that highway, to be joined soon by seemingly innumerable others offering varying kinds of "fast foods." It didn't happen immediately, but at a steady rate, people more and more found themselves eating even their main meals from their menus. Fewer and fewer people made their own dinners in their home, but instead bought meals at these fast foods eateries. More and more often, "home cooking" became a fading memory. Alicia Britt Chole said that it seemed like we forgot how to prepare a meal from just the bare ingredients. Transferring this thought to the spiritual, she said we have opted for "fast" to be a prerequisite for most everything we did or entered into....including our spiritual lives. She calls that, "fast faith." We want our spiritual growth to be fast. We want our faith lives to develop rapidly. We know little of what she calls "the sacred slow." Years ago I knew a young lady who felt she had a call from the Lord upon her life. I remember her telling me once that God had her on "the fast track" for ministry. I told her that it was my experience, both personally and by observation, that God didn't put His servants on such a track. He used what Chloe termed, the sacred slow. It's the way He worked in and through His choicest servants. It's also how He worked for them. It's how He prepared them for what He'd called them to, and also for what He'd created them to be. It's seen in the life of Moses, Joseph, David, Paul, and countless other heroes of the faith. It's also how He worked in His Son, Jesus Christ, who spent the first 30 years of His life in quiet preparation for the cosmic task He had come for. It's how He will use you and me as well....if we will submit to it as He trains us and raises us up for that which we were created for. It is a mark of immaturity to desire everything now. It's the spirit of the prodigal son. Only as we grow in Him do we recognize the beauty of His "sacred slow." In that process, He fits us for eternity. May we embrace it. He's working His masterpieces in the process. Blessings, Pastor O