Recently, after a morning service, I was chatting over coffee to a friend in church. He was telling me that he had just finished reading Dennis Bradley’s 2024 memoir ‘Peace Comes Dropping Slow.’ Described by the Derry Journal as ‘required reading for anyone interested in recent Irish history’ Bradley’s book borrows its title from a line in WB Yeats’ poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.

The observation that certain things, birthed in time and place, emerge slowly triggered in my mind another line that I came across recently. Last year on a short visit to Barcelona we as a family had opportunity to visit the iconic Sagreda Família, the largest unfinished church building in the world. Now in its 143rd year of construction (and it is an incredible sight) Antoni Gaudí, the basilica’s chief architect, was once challenged as to why the building was taking so much time to complete. Gaudí, who saw his masterpiece as a life transcending act of faith and devotion, wryly responded ‘My client is not in a hurry.’

Writing for the Times newspaper, author and phycologist Andy Furnham has observed that we live in a generation when ‘expectations have changed’ regarding how quickly things should happen and how long it is acceptable to have to wait. The modern person, he observes, finds waiting ‘aggravating, demoralising and frustrating’.

One of my favourite writers is Eugene Peterson, translator of the popular Message version of the Bible. Peterson was a pastor and writer who lived deeply in the narrative of scripture and who encouraged others to do the same. One of his central convictions was that Scripture is given to followers of Jesus not simply as narrative (a story to be told) but as metanarrative, a story to inhabit, a way of life to live, learn, and imbibe.

The testimony of both the Old and New Testaments is that God knows what He is doing. He has a purpose and plan from beginning to end; but God is not in a hurry.

Genesis speaks of how in the beginning, God creates, not in an instant, but over a period of time. The failure of our first parents to obey the word of their maker plunges the whole of creation under the judgment of God. Yet as the Old Testament narrative unfolds successive generations find that God is in fact ‘slow to anger’ a truth retold and relived in the days of Moses (Exodus 34:6), David (Psalm 86:15), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:17), Joel (Joel 2:13), Jonah (Jonah 4:2) and Nahum (Nahum 1:3).

As God’s great salvation plan unfolds promises that will be long in the making are announced (Genesis 12:1-3). A pause button can be hit for ‘430 years’ (Exodus 12:40), a relatively short journey to the Promised Land can stretch on and on for ‘a long time’ (Joshua 24:7), and for similarly defined periods the heavens can fall silent (1 Kings 18:1, Isaiah 42:14).

God is not in a hurry but God knows what He is doing and His plans always come in on time. This truth was a steadying and energising truth for the first apostles. They trusted in a God who was working all things out within His ‘appointed time’ (1 Corinthians 4:5).They testified to a Christ sent into this world at ‘the set time’ (Galatians 4:4), who died for the ungodly at ‘just the right time’ (Romans 5:6). They embraced the mission of God reliant on the Holy Spirit who was promised to meet their needs in every situation. (Luke 12:12).

Living in the times in which we live it can be easy to buy into a prevalent ‘exceptionalism’. A belief that the times in which we live are of exceptional significance. We demand that God works here and now, in my time, in my place, in the way that I prescribe, on schedule with the needs, vision, or perceived calling of the church, movement, or group of which I am a part.

The narrative of Scripture tells a different story. In this story a thousand years are quite literally like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night (Psalm 90:4). Jesus calls disciples in the times in which we live to enter into a story authored from before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) finding its conclusion at a time beyond our knowing (Matthew 24:36), and running to a timetable that is not ours to know (Acts 1:6-7).

God’s plans come dropping slow. He is not in a hurry. In times when so much can aggravate, demoralise and frustrate, these are steadying truths for all who would seek to follow in the way of Jesus; in these days appointed for us, to live, and move and have our being (Acts 17:26-28).

Niall Lockhart is minister in Ballyhenry Presbyterian Church.