Sometimes Slower Is Faster and Faster Is Slower
What a strange place we live in as followers of Jesus, pursuing Him and His healing touch through Immanuel. Sometimes slower is faster…One confounding, confusing and controversial component of the Kingdom of God is the seeming “upside-downness” of the message. Jesus said the last will be first and the first shall be last (Matthew 20:16). Think about the ultimate “upside-downness” of the Kingdom…Philippians 2:5-8 says that Jesus was God. All the benefits of Heaven were His. Yet, He humbled Himself by becoming a man (a servant actually) and dying for us on a cross. Talk about upside down! It doesn’t make any sense at all.
Sometimes our Immanuel work can feel so slow. Building intimacy with Jesus is a process that takes time. We all have blocks that get in the way of our relationship with Him. The upside-down part of this is that most times, slower is actually faster. Jesus doesn’t make us 100% well and whole in an instant because then we wouldn’t really need Him anymore. When the goal is intimacy, everything else must follow behind.
If slower is faster, the opposite can be true as well: faster is slower… In many cases I believe this is true (as hard as it is to accept). Think about someone with money problems. If you give them a pile of money, they may get some initial temporary relief. But the underlying problem still exists and they most likely will end up right where they started with the same money problems. Look at the studies of lottery winners. Not a pretty sight…
I love the illustration of a butterfly. When a butterfly is working its way out of the cocoon, it is gaining strength that it will need to survive. As it pushes its way through the tiny opening in the cocoon, fluid from its body is pushed out into its wings. This enables the butterfly to fly. If you try to “help” the butterfly out by cutting the cocoon open prematurely, it will not survive.
Slower is faster and faster is slower.
Intimacy is a life-long process that feels excruciatingly slow at times. The only answer is to look to Jesus, be with Him, and let Him heal those places in us that block our relationship with Him. Then smile and rest in the “upside-downness” of this Kingdom life.