Expect Delays

T

he flashing sign on the side of the road offered me little hope.  Traffic had already been heavy due to road construction and now the sign promised that farther ahead, delays could be expected.  Now there is nothing more uplifting when you are in a hurry to get somewhere than being told that delays are not only likely, they are guaranteed.  Faced with this prospect, I determined to enjoy my drive and take the delays, and whatever else came along, in stride.

Not too far past the flashing panel, those wonderful little orange cones came into view and slowly but surely the right-hand lane grew narrower.  Finally, the lane disappeared completely and a three-lane Interstate highway was reduced to two lanes.  As you can imagine, this caused all types of “interesting challenges” as drivers waited until the last possible second to leave the right-hand lane and join those of us trying our best to keep our patience and maintain forward momentum.

If you’ve ever been in a similar situation, and I’ll just bet you have, you understand the frustration that comes with moving along at a snail’s pace down a major highway.  It wasn’t so much that I was frustrated with the drivers attempting to join the slow but steady flow of traffic; instead, I was aggravated with the whole idea of being delayed in the first place.  I was on a schedule and it didn’t include delays on the highway.  I was determined to be at a certain place at a certain time, but the delay in the traffic’s flow completely wrecked that idea.  The delay, however, didn’t prevent me from enjoying my ride; it just altered my arrival time.

It should come as no surprise that in the Christian walk there are slow-downs, detours, delays, and sometime complete halts.  The Scriptures are filled with example after example of times when things didn’t go exactly according to plan.  Time after time we see God halting the forward momentum of His people when they would rather have continued going.  But God’s perspective is so different from ours and He knows when delays and detours are necessary in order to teach us to rely on Him.

One man who knew all about delays was Joseph.  Betrayed and sold into slavery by his brothers, having committed no wrong against them, Joseph’s life in Egypt seemed to be one series of delays after another.  He became a slave in Potipher’s household and just when things seemed to be moving forward at a good pace, bam, there was a roadblock and a detour which landed him in prison.  While he was there, Joseph was place in charge of his fellow prisoners and just when he thought he saw a way out, he was forced to sit through a delay.

This delay is found in Genesis 40:23-41:1, “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him…When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile…” While in prison Joseph successfully interpreted the cupbearer’s dream and requested that when he regained his position that he use his influence with Pharaoh to free Joseph.  As the Scriptures tell us, however, the cupbearer forgot Joseph and he experienced a two-year delay.

But at the end of those two years, Pharaoh had a dream and the cupbearer remembered Joseph.  What seemed like another rejection, another bump in the road, was in fact God’s divine intervention.  He had not forgotten Joseph and the Lord had not caused this delay in order to be cruel or overbearing.  Instead, Joseph had a place of service in the prison that prepared him for service to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt.  When the two-year delay was over, Joseph was raised to second in command over all Egypt and was placed in charge of the entire country.  When the delay was over, was no longer on a two-lane road but on a major highway!

Today you may be experiencing a delay in your walk with God.  It may seem He has forgotten you, that you have been sitting still for the longest time and you wonder if you will ever make any forward progress again.  At times such as these, the temptation is to shut down, withdraw from God and from others, and become easily frustrated.  What you may not realize is that God is way up the road, smoothing out rough places, laying new pavement, or putting in more lanes so that your walk with Him will be better than it has before.  These times are also the times God chooses to test your faith and your reliance on Him.  He knows where you are at all times and will never abandon you.  That day on the road the sign read “Expect Delays!” It did not say “Turn off your car and get out!”