Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. – Isaiah 64:4

 Today's Scripture Reading (September 13, 2020): Isaiah 64

Douglass Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) in "The Salmon of Doubt" argues that "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." I have to admit, I agree with Adams, and there have been times when that has been my reaction to a deadline. Right now, I have a piece of work that is long overdue, and yet I still procrastinate. But there are other things with which I know I need to stay on schedule, this blog being one of them. When I was in college, and later Seminary, I don't think I ever had to ask for an extension on a deadline. I do remember being part of a discussion with a professor, maybe because my work was completed on time, over the concept of extensions. My professor argued that deadlines had to be maintained in school because when we finally got released into the real world, extensions would not be available to any of us. Still, I admit, sometimes, I still love the noise deadlines make as they go whooshing past me.

As a Christian, there is a tension here when it comes to the concept of our deadlines and faith. Isaiah, again still speaking to those living in exile, speaks of the intersection between the two ideas. As far as the people were concerned, the deadline had already gone whooshing by them. It was time to go home. Judah lay in ruins, and the time was now to return and begin the hard work of rebuilding the nation. Ironically, once they would actually get there, they would look back nostalgically at the time they spent in Babylon because the work of rebuilding would be hard.

Isaiah argues that they know God. They have seen him move in the past. He is the only God that they had seen move. Ba'al and Asherah and Molek and any of the others were only figments of their imaginations. But they had seen God.

So, Isaiah insists that he is willing to stand among those who ignore the deadlines and wait on the God who he has seen. But some of us read this passage and argue that all we have to do is wait; I am unconvinced. It is part of the tension, and there is supposed to be tension.

We need to be the ones who work. We are the ones, the people of the Kingdom who, walking with Jesus, are transforming this planet. And like the rebuilding of Jerusalem and Judah after the exile, the work would be hard. And there would be deadlines to which God expected them to live up. Part of the struggle that the exiles would face when they got back to Judah was that the job was hard, and they procrastinated, listening as the deadlines went whooshing by them. But, on the other side, there were going to be times when, as God followers, they would need to wait on the timing of God. It isn't one or the other; it is both.

And so I work, but I also wait. I want to be part of what God is doing in my city, in my nation, and my world. I want to work at the dream of up there, becoming a reality down here. But I am also waiting for God and his timing. I am going to try hard not to get upset when it isn't completed on my schedule. I will learn to wait

I will work on deadlines, but I will also not panic when they go whooshing by, because I know that I can wait on the God I have seen.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 65