Time, Perspective & Prayer

Last week a friend shared how much joy she was experiencing calling her mom three times a week. I was stunned. Maybe that statement doesn’t sound stunning, but as Paul Harvey used to say, “And now, for the rest of the story...”

In the 80s and the 90s I remember praying regularly for our friend’s relationship with her mom, which at the time was probably her greatest trial, filled with grief, frustration and pain. As recently as three years ago, one phone conversation got so bad, her husband had to intervene and eventually end the call. 

So when she shared the highlight of her week being her conversations with her mom I thought something I have often thought when I’ve heard similar stories: “If an angel had shown up 30 years ago and said - ‘one of the delights of your life will be three phone calls a week with your mother,’ I doubt she would have believed him.”

One element that wars against our faith in prayer is - Time. We pray to a God ‘out of time.’

"But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." - 2 Peter 3:8 
 
We however, are in time. It is everything to us. To quote Will Smith in Collateral Beauty:

“Love, time, death. Now these three things connect every single human being on earth. We long for love, we wish we had more time and we fear death.”

And our Lord is aware of this. He hints at it in the parable of the Unrighteousness Judge, when he says:

"And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them “speedily.” Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" - Luke 18:7-8

Nevertheless...will he find faith? God is faithful, guaranteed! But even so, we can crumble in unbelief so quickly. Why? God’s “speedily” is not our “speedily.”

Interestingly, Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable -

"... to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart." - Luke 18:1

What helps one do that? I have often taken strength and courage in a statement made by King David:

"I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread." - Psalm 37:25

David knew trouble. His trials, losses, bewilderments and laments are recorded for us in psalm after psalm. So when he says these words, he is saying them not having skipped trouble, but having come through trouble and viewing it from the other side. 
 
There is an advantage to years. We get to see ‘a little more’ how God sees. I remember my previous pastor often saying: “the judgment of God may be slow, but it’s sure.” It seems most everything God does is slow - at least by my timetable. But the surety of God’s promises is only fortified the longer we live. As the writer of Joshua records near the end of Joshua’s life:

"Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." - Joshua 21:45

My friend is living on the other side of 40 years of prayer. She shared with me today that two years ago, when she went to visit her mom, her heart suddenly changed. She saw her mother differently. She embraced her mom and said, “I love you!” And from that time on, love has only continued to grow. 

So you know what her greatest challenge has been in COVID? That she hasn’t been able to see her mom in person! She is yearning for the time when she can again travel and see her. Who would have thought...?

God.