Breaking Out of Time

God intended man to have all good, but in…God’s time; and therefore all disobedience, all sin, consists essentially in breaking out of time. Hence, the restoration of order by the Son of God had to be the annulment of that premature snatching at knowledge, the beating down of the hand outstretched toward eternity, the repentant return from a false, swift transfer of eternity to a slow confinement in time…Patience [is] the basic constituent of Christianity…the power to wait, to persevere, to hold out, to endure to the end, not to transcend one’s own limitations, not to force issues by playing the hero or the titan, but to practice the virtue that lies beyond heroism, the meekness of the lamb which is led.

—Hans Urs von Balthasar

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The singular mark of patience is not endurance or fortitude but hope. To be impatient…is to live without hope. Patience is grounded in the Resurrection. It is life oriented toward a future that is God’s doing, and its sign is longing, not so much to be released from the ills of the present, but in anticipation of the good to come.

—Robert Wilken

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Waiting, therefore, is an act of faith in that it is oriented toward the future. Yet our assurance of hope is rooted in the past, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and in His promises and resurrection. In this way, waiting, like time itself, centers on Christ—the fulcrum of time.

—Tish Harrison Warren, ‘Liturgy of the Ordinary’

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For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

—Romans 8:22-25

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O, beloved—this is always the temptation, yes?

The premature snatching, the grasping, the thinking we want it and we want it now? (gentle, sorrowful) We get ourselves all worked up like the toddler who wants his cracker now rather than waiting until the proper time, don’t we? We flail about on the floor, wailing, mulling over the ‘unfairness’ of it all when our loving Father, He has already secured the ‘cracker’ and is merely putting off the giving of it temporarily, not because He is cruel, but because He is kind and knows precisely what we need.

Waiting is never easy, beloved. It’s not meant to be. (gentle)

Waiting is an act of faith, an ‘exercise’ if you will. It’s us putting into practice what we say we believe; it’s a way we can tangibly show we are trusting Him.

As we wait, we look back at the past, beloved—at His precious promises and His Words that we know, in our hearts, ring true. We ponder the many stories we read there and wonder how they, how we, are all part of His Big Story, do we not? (gentle) We soak in the life of Christ and seek to emulate Him, gentle and lowly, tender and mild. We try to learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before us—desperate to be like the Second Adam rather than the first, seeking to be Abigail rather than Bathsheba; longing for great faith like Abraham and tender hearts like David and logic-defying mercy like Joseph; shying away from repeating the failings of the Israelites who complained even as they were being miraculously delivered.

So too, we look forward as we wait. We hope in what we do not see, beloved. We trust that, though all seems dead now, it will wondrously come to life; though all feels lost, it will ultimately be found; though the icy cold of winter is now upon us, springtime with its bright green buds and tender blossoms will Soon be here! The Great Feast is even now being prepared for those who love Him! His victory is sure! We won’t wander aimlessly in this parched wilderness forever, my precious one—no. (gentle, strong)

And so, beloved, all of this to say—He is already set on giving us All Good Things. He has secured the Good and He has planned just when to give us the Good, and He delights to give us the Good He has in store for us, my beautiful one—He does!

And just like there was one ‘teeny, tiny thing’ that Adam and Eve weren’t to do in the Garden, beloved, so too there is one ‘teeny, tiny thing’ that we aren’t to do—we are not to ‘break out of time.’ (firm but gentle)

We don’t sin in the longing, beloved. We don’t sin in the wondering or the desiring or the pondering of what it will be like when He finally speaks the Word. We don’t sin in the asking, the incessant begging and melodramatic pleading even…

We sin only in the premature taking when all He wants is to give, beloved.

And perhaps, just perhaps, this is why He implemented time in the first place, my precious one? To restore order to our chaotic world, to our haphazard and wandering hearts? (pondering) To teach us the meekness, the submission of Christ? To orient us properly, to slow us down, so that we are capable of acknowledging Him as Giver and ourselves as utterly helpless apart from Him?

Beloved? (tender) Let us not ‘break out of time,’ please? Let us, Together, recall His goodness and His mercy and His long-suffering and gladly wait upon our Good Father to give us that which we already know He has prepared for us. Let us choose obedience and patience, bowing before His throne in humility and awe. May we flee Together from the the temptation to which Adam and Eve succumbed, and trust that All Good will be given to us when He sees we are ready to receive it.

O, beloved—by His great mercy, may we run the race well and endure to the end, and may He be pleased with us as we ever so slowly learn to wait upon Him.

Amen.