Impatience

Again I am still chewing over the week we had away. i think it will take a long time to process. I was rechewing over the whole thing of patience and in fact impatience this morning, believe it or not after watching old Dr Whos.

We went back to 1974, I think, when Tom Baker was Dr Who. What struck us all was the way it was written. We watched 2 hrs, about 5 episodes and still we were on the same story line. The plot unfolded slowly with twists and turns in it but very much more slow paced that the modern ones. There wasn't as much running or shouting either. In fact it was a very intrinsic plot with bluff and double bluff and really it was only into episode 2 that one was starting to get what was going on. In the modern episodes we have a whole story, on the whole, in one 45 min slot, sometimes with it running to 2 at the most, 90 mins in all. I think with the Tom Baker one we are looking at about 180 mins, and we use to have to wait a whole week to find out what happened next, always with it leaving us at a gripping point. So these guys had to write back then with 7 cliff hanger endings! Wow!

We talk about kids having a shorter attention span now which is why we have to do this, but why is this I ask. Have we just made them more impatient?
So how does this fit in with how they relate to God, to working towards something, etc. God doesn't often answer in an instant, nor do things like I was saying with arts, like writing a good novel, getting a degree, esp with distance learning, discipling, planting a community (will explore that more soon), and all those things that cannot be done NOW!
Though I have been amazed to hear how many Christians have not waited till their wedding night to sleep together. Is this another sign of our impatient community? That even though this may be God's best we can't wait. But if we can't wait for something that we could actual deal with with self control and God's help, how often do we miss a great plan He has for us but wanting it NOW rather than being willing to wait.
Look at the great Bible characters who had to wait years and years, and look at what happened to Abraham, and the mess that is still making in the Middle East, by not being willing to wait till God's timing, and here was a guy who had been waiting a very long time so in our modern world we would surely be willing to excuse him! But from his hurrying God he got Ishmael who is the father of the Arab nations and look how they and the Israelite people are destroying each other.

Would the Middle East be different if Abraham had waited? What things in our world will history look back on and say "if only they had waited on God's timing"?