Growing up I remember asking mom a question. Sometimes I would get an immediate answer. Sometimes I wouldn’t get an answer at all and would have to talk louder. Then I would get a “What?!”answer, because she had been busy and didn’t hear me. But often I would get the “in a minute” answer. I confess I adopted that answer as a mom myself. And it became referred to as a mommy minute.
A mommy minute can last WAY past an actual minute. And the miracle about a mommy minute is that it is never the same length of time. Sometimes it is only a few minutes and sometimes it is probably 5-8 minutes. That’s the mystery. You never know how long a mommy minute is actually going to be.
The secret really rests in the questioner. How long are they willing to wait for the answer? For me, in grade school, I could wait pretty good. But when I became a full blown teenager, waiting became harder. The pestering for an answer became more urgent. And with hindsight, I now can see that the pestering did not really help the answer to go in my favor the majority of the time. Unless of course, my mom was really, really fed up and would then, sometimes, just give in to make me go away and leave her alone. (Insert devious teenage smile and victory dance here.)
Growing up, the answers were not always what I wanted them to be. I did not always get my way or get to do what I wanted to do. Sometimes the answers were even a very clear NO!
I’m reading through the Psalms right now and today I read Psalm 120.
“I call on the Lord in my distress and he answers me.” Psalm 120:1 NIV
The very first verse! Stopped me and got me to thinking.
Packed in this one verse is so much!
The psalms teach us to go to God with everything we feel. Our hurts, our distress, our anger, our fears, our sadness, our joys, our gladness, our thanksgiving, our praise. ALL of it! We are to go to God with our most intimate feelings and desires. My Bible introduction to the psalms says, “Think of the psalms as entries in a diary, reflecting people’s most intimate dealings with God.” NIV
And when we do.
He answers us.
God hears us.
It doesn’t say here that he gives us what we want. He doesn’t give us what will make us feel better. He doesn’t make the feelings go away. POOF. That’s not how God works.
But he hears us. There is this deep comfort in knowing He hears us.
But of course, we want an answer. We want Him to fix everything. To make the hurt and distress go away. And God being a loving God. Does answer our prayers. But often, very often, not in the way we want Him to.
I often feel like He answers us in a ‘God minute.’ Now a God minute is definitely way longer than a mommy minute. In fact I think there is no way for us to measure a ‘God minute.’ For we are even told in 2 Peter 3:8 NIV. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
So God’s clock is not like our clock. His minutes, hours, days are not the same as ours.
And when I say a ‘God minute.’ It’s another way to say the answer; Wait.
I right now, am in the wait. I am in the ‘God minute.’
But I am thankful that I have a God who hears me. I am thankful that I have a God who I can talk to about anything and everything.
And so do you. Do not be afraid to tell Him anything and everything. He will hear you.
Dear Holy and Loving Lord, thank you for being present to hear everything and anything we have to tell you. Help us, in our fear, to open up to you. To tell you our deepest longings, our deepest hurts, and our deepest desires. Thank you for hearing us. We praise you and give you thanks for the new day. The sunshine, the birds singing and the green grass from all the rain. Thank you for friends you send our way; that are your arms for hugs, your hands to serve and your feet to send to others in need. We thank you even in the wait, because we know you hear us and that comforts us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.