I love to cook. It is a hobby of mine. After a long day at work I find relaxation, joy and renewed energy in preparing a meal for my wife, family, or friends. Cooking also offers me spiritual insights on occasion.

One insight is that time is an ingredient for any dish. Not thyme but TIME. That’s right. It is important to allow whatever one is cooking enough time for all the complexities and depths of flavor to emerge. Rush things and your food will be shallow and boring. Just try hurrying a soufflé and see what I mean. Or try to barbecue some pork ribs by slapping on some bottled sauce 5 minutes before you char them to bits on an overheated grill because the guest will arrive in 20 minutes. Oh, you can eat both but one will be flat and runny and the other will taste like the charcoal brickets you grilled over.

Good things take time and we need to allow for that.

It is the same in our spiritual journey. Too often we want to rush what God is cooking up in our lives. Rarely do we like to wait. Daily we say, “Is it ready yet? Can we eat yet?” This is nothing new of course.

I attended part of the training for the intentional interim pastors at the Atlantic Coast Conference offices last week. Warren Tyson and others were teaching at this. It was awesome! What struck me was the dwelling in the Word passage for that day. It was from Exodus 14:5-14.

The Israelites have just fled Egypt, the Egyptians are coming after them, they are bottle necked between mountain ranges on each side and the Red Sea ahead of them. They see what is happening and think, “Our goose is cooked!” But Moses says, “No it isn’t. Not yet. The full meal that God has planned for you is not yet ready. And trust me, if you wait it will be better than what it looks like now. Give God time.”

He says it more spiritually of course, “Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus. 14:13-14)

Moses offers some advice that I think we can all apply in our daily lives.

1. Don’t worry. Things are in process. It’s supposed to look like this at this stage. And the end product will be what you long for.
2. Give things time. God is at work. You can trust that.
3. Two things are true at the same time.
   1. What you want is coming, it is in the future.
   2. It is not here, so you can’t taste it yet.

You see, if you just look at what things look like now you are only going to see things as half-baked. And of course they are half-baked! Because most things in our lives take more time to prepare than we imagine. So give God time to finish cooking up the wonderful things He has in store for you at His Table. If you do, you will enjoy the wonderful complexities and depths of flavors that can only be produced by waiting and watching the true Master Chef at work.