Who among (amongst?) us hasn’t spent a minute or 3 hours killing time by watching videos on social media or YouTube? There are entire digital reams of bandwidth dedicated to whatever hobby, interest, sport, political cause, spiritual bent, or obscure craft that winds your watch. And yes, there are videos about watch winding. Personally, rednecks blowing stuff up, guys and girls crashing vehicles of just about any type, and chimpanzees doing anything will draw my attention and compel me to watch. One of my life’s most precious moments came from watching a YouTube clip featuring a chimp riding a Segway, very quickly, towards the woods. At the last second he bailed, and the Segway went into the trees. Oh man, that was great! This was time well redeemed! But what I’ve noticed lately is that in some clips, if what we are expecting doesn’t unfold almost immediately, printed words will admonish us to “wait for it…” Mind you, the pilgrims had to rely on sketchy dial-up connections to simply view Pinterest posts on scurvy and rickets prevention. Must’ve taken forever to simply wait for an image to load! Nowadays, we lose our minds if a live feed from a cricket match in Bhopal, India doesn’t immediately stream. In high-def, for crying out loud! Back in my day (here we go, old-timer), we had to wait for everything that is available instantaneously in this modern world. To simply hear a song we liked, we either had to wait until it came on the radio or go out and buy the 45, or the LP for less popular bands or songs. Of course, this is when there were things called “music stores”. I remember as a kid sitting with a friend of mine in his dad’s ’65 Impala with an AM radio trying to find Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. Imagine how time consuming, and battery consuming it was, dialing back and forth between the 2 or 3 stations that would potentially play that favorite jam. Oh, the humanity! That said, there was a certain sweetness and satisfaction when we did find that song. We’ve grown so accustomed to being instantly gratified that anticipation and the hope of a pay-off is almost scorned, instead of savored. Patience, once considered a virtue by many, is all but extinct. Don’t get me wrong, for the things that are necessarily immediate and urgent, the ability to quickly bring answers and resolution is fantastic, and in some instances, life saving. But where it isn’t, we’ve lost a satisfying aspect of living. Maybe its time to once again extol the virtue of patience (Prov. 16:32)?
(Click “Stand on Firmer Ground” for deeper look into Wait For It…)