lkwunhyo blog

TL;DR: God’s love is slow. Even in the seeming silence, God isn’t absent. That’s just how love works. God sees you with compassion and He’s working even if you don’t realise it. Be still and trust in God for who He is — compassionate, loving, absolutely just, and your Father.

Living as a spiritually and mentally healthy follower of Jesus in our technological, calendar-driven culture is, it turns out, quite difficult. Society upholds productivity and efficiency as the highest values, but the Bible says otherwise.

And the reason is quite simple. Love, joy, and peace are incompatible with hurry.

Be Still and Know

Hurry is relentless. In fact, Carl Jung takes it a step further. He says,

Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.

All our worst moments as a brother or a sister, boyfriend or girlfriend, or even as a Christian is when we are in a hurry — late for an appointment, behind on an unrealistic to-do list, or trying to cram in too much in one day. We show our anger, tension, a critical nagging — the antitheses of love.

When Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Israelites didn’t see Moses for over forty nights.

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
— Exodus 32:1 NIV (w/ emphasis)

They were impatient. Hurried.

But don’t be so quick to judge the Israelites. James (the brother of Jesus) tells us that we’re really not that much different. Perhaps it would have taken even less for you to turn away from God — like an alert on your phone while you’re reading your Bible or a multiday Netflix binge or a full-on dopamine addiction to Instagram.

When you’re hurried, anxious, and chaotic, the worst possible solution to any problem is to come up with a solution. Instead, be still like the psalmist.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
— Psalm 46:10 NIV

Be still, he says. The solution to a hurried life isn’t more hurry. It’s to slow down and to know God — to pray, reflect, and meditate.

Believing in Your God

Keep in mind that the Israelites didn’t know God personally. Sure, they saw the miracles, the plagues, and Moses splitting the red sea but that’s all they saw — Moses. They didn’t see their God working out a story of their salvation. They saw Moses’ God.

We’re all like this in one way or another. We all have our worship celebrities, our pastors, and spiritual leaders. The truth is that none of them are God and none of them can replace Him either. In fact, they’re no different to you — slow to act and quick to anger.

You don’t need to know the idols in your lives, nor will they give you a faith you want. Faith comes from knowing God, face to face. Personally.

Why Does God Work So Slowly

But life doesn’t seem to be that clear. In fact, it’s easy to judge anyone who thinks so as woefully naive. Just because you’ve met God and even if you love Him, it’s not as if your life’s worries are no longer existent. It could very much be far more difficult.

So why does God work so slowly if at all? Well, if God were to get rid of all of the evil in the world, He would have to get rid of us too. The thing about God’s love is that love is slow. Unhurried.

Hurry and love are incompatible. Look at Jesus. Jesus saw many sinners and of all kinds — the blind, paralytics, and lepers. But for almost every encounter, the gospels record an often unnoticed pattern.

We see Jesus look at sinners — He looks at them with compassion. He waits for them to approach Him or at times, He approaches them. Then He helps them — heals them and forgives their sins.

It’s easy for Jesus to heal anyone without a glance, but Jesus doesn’t just heal. He loves. And here, love takes time.

It takes time for you too. It might even seem that God is passing over your prayers without notice. But that couldn’t be farther away from the truth. God does listen and He does know. When you are happy, so is God. But that means that when you suffer, God does too. Even through all the seeming silence, God hasn’t lost you. He’s loving you. God’s love is slow. That’s why the psalmist sings,

Be still, and know…