Turn the Page

We don't want the silence

I’ve never been a person to speed up what I’m listening to, be it an audiobook or podcast or anything of the sort. I know some people will speed it up to 1.5x, or if your brain is in overdrive, 2x. I just don’t. The podcasts or books I listen to often require enough of my brain power that speeding it up is just too much for me.

Do you remember when you used to have to listen to the theme song of a TV show on streaming platforms? Nowadays, theme songs are often extremely short or nonexistent. But, when you turn on The Office, it gives you the option to skip the intro. It’ll also let you skip recaps. And credits. And when the series ends, it often will start a new one for you automatically.

Silence is not something that we do well. Even as I type this, I have country music playing in the background. We want information overload, whether that be news, commentary, teachings, entertainment, music, or even just white noise.

It’s no surprise that we overlook the periods of silence in the Bible. We also overlook the amount of time that God takes to fulfill his promises. Often, this is because turning a page doesn’t really reflect the length of time it took in history.

Think about it. In the first two chapters of Exodus alone, Moses is born, grows to 40 years old, flees Egypt, stays in Midian 40 years, and then experiences the burning bush when he was 80. Over 80 years passes in two chapters! But for us, it’s just the turn of a page.

This doesn’t even take into account the 400 years between Genesis 50 and Exodus 1. The turn of a page from Malachi to Matthew is another 400+ years. But we don’t usually think about it.

Maybe you’re between pages right now in your life. You can see how God has worked in the past. You trust (or at least hope) that God will work in the future. But right now, you’re the Israelite wandering in the desert, wondering when God will finally break through and turn the darn page. You want to skip the intro, play it at 2x, and move on to the next series. You don’t want to wait. You’re tired of waiting. It’s been a long month…or year…or decade.

Most every narrative in the Bible, shoot, even the whole Bible itself, didn’t move along at a pace we would have desired. Every Christian has been where we are. We are not alone. And if you’re not there right now, you will be at some point - waiting on God to turn that page.

The one thing you want to do is prayerfully ask God to turn that page, but I don’t think that is inherently the best prayer to pray. Go ahead and pray that God would turn the page, but even more so, pray that you would be faithful while you’re still on this page. Pray that God would give you opportunities to glorify him, to share his love, to know him better, to grow in faith, knowledge, and understanding.

Wait actively. Don’t just pray for God to hurry up and then sit on the couch while the sand flows through the hourglass. His timing is perfect. Our feelings are not. He’s working. Work along with him. Be faithful to him. Ask him how to be faithful in this time. He knows you think you’re ready. He’s not ready yet.