When God puts a dream in your heart, the tendency is to run ahead and create your own timeline. Pastor Peter and Carolyn Haas share what happened to illustrate this on a family road trip.
“I like to do the old-fashioned American road trip in the car.”
Peter and Carolyn loaded up their three kids for an eight-hour road trip with the promise of a pool and fun at the end. But Peter knew his kids would need some motivation to be patient for that long.
“I thought, I’m going to have to use my vision-casting skills.”
Peter described the final destination to the kids in detail. After hearing how exciting the pool was going to be, their youngest son Eden got so excited that he insisted on wearing his puffy swim vest, under his seat belt, for the entire eight-hour drive.
After thirty minutes in the car, Eden’s three-year-old voice was carrying across the seats with the all-too-familiar, “Are we there yet?” Within three hours he was openly weeping as the swim vest made him warmer and more uncomfortable in the seat. Peter tried to reason with him, but Eden wouldn’t be comforted.
“It was almost bizarre how upset he was at me.”
Eden insisted that his dad had lied to him, because they hadn’t yet reached the pool. Peter realized this was a perfect metaphor for how we interact with God at times. In his book Broken Escalators, Peter shares how we can get in the way of our own advancement when we try to plan ahead.
“I get a dream, and I obsess over my dream and my dream [becomes] like a big, sweaty, water vest. You know it’s big, it’s bulky…”
If we’re not careful we can allow our excitement about the dream to cloud our trust in God and His timing. Our dream can crowd out the larger joy of knowing and walking with God.
“My timeline is so different than God’s timeline. We get into this position where we’re just wanting to accuse God of being not faithful, when in reality He is faithful. The problem is we have this big bulky swim vest on that’s oppressing us.”
At some point we have to choose to surrender to the timeline God has, because He has the perfect timeline.
Eventually the Haas family arrived at the pool and Peter’s son realized Peter had kept his promise.
It may not be on our timetable. It may take longer than we would hope, but God is faithful to fulfill the dreams that He’s given us. In His perfect timing, He gets us where we need to go.
Key Scriptures: Colossians 3:1-4; Genesis 39
Featured Songs: Made New by Lincoln BrUNUSEDewster; Keep Walkin’ by Toby Mac; Feel It by Toby Mac
