Love Takes Time

I was at the library with a teammate and we were talking about the fact that we were tired. I shared that I'm currently participating in a night watch - where people take shifts praying for our nation throughout the night - and that I get up and pray from 3:00-3:30 in the morning. Now, the getting up in the middle of the night part went mostly unnoticed as he said, "You can pray for a half hour straight? I feel like I'd run out of things to say"

A half hour seems so short to me! I treasure whatever time I can get, but the longer the better :) During my regular morning quiet times, I have to set an alarm so that I remember to go to class, etc. Time with my Savior is the most enjoyable part of my day, and it's constant. I know that I can come to His cross and hear His voice, and that He will hear mine. It's nothing to me to wait upon the One I love, to really get to know His heart.

One of the most commonly expressed ideas in the Christian community is that's it's a religion and not a relationship. But I think we do a really poor job of showing what that actually means. If it's a relationship, we have to put time into it, and not just that we have to, but we should want to. I can imagine that if I was learning to fall in love with a guy, I'd want to spend time talking with him and just finding out more about who he is. So why shouldn't I be willing to do the same for Jesus?

Our society isn't conditioned to wait patiently. Eric and Leslie Ludy write in Meet Mr. Smith"We live in a fast-food, microwavable, Internet-downloadable society and the idea of waiting for anything is tantamount to returning to cooking over an open fire and pacing in front of dial-up modems. But waiting is the chief ingredient in every great romantic tale. For it is through cherishing the ‘waiting’ seasons of life that we learn to fully appreciate and take delight in the ‘receiving’ seasons” (Page 103, in case anyone's fact-checking me). The same way that we might wait for an earthly prince, we need to devote ourselves to knowledge of the Lord. It's a process, and it takes some patience.



Lord, how I love You and time in Your presence. There is no such thing as too much time at Your feet!

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving Colossians 4:2

Scarcely had I passed by them,
When I found the one I love.
I held him and would not let him go,
Until I had brought him to the house of my mother,
And into the chamber of her who conceived me. Song of Solomon 3:4