We live in a time where everything happens fast. The 21st century is a period of speed; the invention of the 5G network, an upgrade from the 4G, which was working perfectly, should be evidence of that. Every new idea and invention will only be supported if it comes with the advantage of speed. The new telecom company promises faster internet speeds; the new bank promises shorter times in the queue and faster money transfers.

The system we live in operates on time; we go to school at a particular time, finish by a certain age, and get our first job at a certain age. Therefore, when we are young, we assume that our lives will automatically move at the same speed as or even faster than we have witnessed growing up. We use the current trend as the yardstick to measure what should happen and when.

However, I am now old enough to know that life does not always work out as planned. We all move at a different pace from what is dictated by our systems and culture. At some point, we move slower and experience delays in one or many areas. I have seen many things under the sun that have made me realize that delay is, in fact, real.

I have seen brilliant people – the ones everyone in the neighbourhood said had a bright future – fail to finish school for one reason or another. I have seen people stay for many years at a job they said was a starter job and intended to work for only two years while they looked for better opportunities. Six years later, the better opportunities never came. I have seen a university graduate who was told from a young age that education was the key to success sit in despair in their parent’s home four years after graduation with no job.

I have seen the good girl clock 35 before marriage. Everyone says she will make a good wife one day, but that day drags on and never seems to come. I have seen the most hard-working person take ten years at one level; every promotion has a condition they cannot meet. I have seen a married couple celebrate their firstborn’s 16th birthday in a rented house with three rooms. I have also seen a pastor have a congregation of 50 people even after 20 years in ministry. It can happen to prayer warriors and to lukewarm Christians.

I am no stranger to delay, and even though many days I put up a strong face, some days, waves of discouragement come. The questions start; why is life not moving, or if it is moving, why is it so slow? Why have I failed to leave the waiting room? Is there hope for me, or should I accept my fate and wait to experience certain things in heaven?

I remember a sermon from high school many years ago from a vibrant man of God. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The word of the Lord through Jeremiah was clear: God has plans for us, and they are good, and yet sometimes it feels like a paradox, a statement that mocks us when we do not see these promises; at least not in the time frame we wish them to be.

Was delay only experienced in the 21st century, or did men of old experience the same, and if they did, how did they leave the waiting room?

When I began to intentionally study the subject of delay from the Old Testament to the New Testament, I realized something. The men of old, the ones whose stories we know and love, went through periods of uncertainty, delay, trusting in God, and hoping against all hope. 

Abraham the father of believers had to wait 25 years, even after the promise of a son. Jacob had to wait for more than 20 years for the blessing and inheritance, even after seeing a stairway to heaven at Bethel, where God promised a blessing to the whole earth through him. Joseph dreamt, he was a leader at the age of 17, and he became governor at 30. David was anointed king as a teenager and waited for a decade before he sat on the throne. Lazarus, the one Jesus loved, fell sick and died, and for four days he was in the grave.

The stories are many, but one thing is clear; the Bible is no stranger to delay, and we are not the first to feel we have waited so long and have grown weary of the waiting room. Therefore, there must be a reason why delays happen. Most importantly, there should be a way out, and we should know what to do during such seasons of our lives. This blog series will address some of these aspects so that on a whole we become good “waiters” in the Kingdom of God.