Day 17: Jesus Holds Out Hope for Us

Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. 2 PETER 3:8–9

NOT TOO LONG AGO, I went back to a crack house where I spent a lot of time about ten years ago when I was in the process of adopting the unborn baby of a young woman who lived there. She was a hard-core addict, worked as a prostitute, and was mentally challenged as the result of severe abuse she’d experienced at the hands of her birth parents—who were both heroin addicts—when she was just a baby. Needless to say, I quickly found myself every bit as concerned about this pregnant image-bearer (who was young enough to be my daughter) as I was concerned about the child she was carrying. And while I was completely devastated when the adoption fell through at the eleventh hour (four days before I was supposed to bring the baby home), I often still think about and pray for them both.

I hoped she wouldn’t be there when I knocked on that all-too-familiar dilapidated door. I hoped maybe she’d finally agreed to go to rehab. Maybe she’d gotten clean and gotten a job serving fast food instead of serving up her petite, track-marked body to abusive johns. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. After I pounded on the door for several minutes, it cracked open to reveal her scowling new pimp and his growling pit bull. When I calmly assured him that I was an old friend of hers and not an undercover cop, he swung the door all the way open and gestured dismissively toward her with an expletive.

She was sprawled out on the same threadbare couch I remembered and was obviously high because her eyes were unfocused and her head was lolling from side to side. I softly told her who I was, that I still loved her, and asked if she needed any help. She mumbled she didn’t remember me and was waiting for a “boyfriend”—which meant her pimp was about to hand her over to some stranger to do whatever he wanted with her in exchange for fifteen or twenty dollars. Then she asked groggily if I could loan her a few bucks because she really needed another hit. My heart broke with fresh sorrow as I walked away from that precious girl in that dreadful shack. When I told my friends and family where I’d been, they asked why in the world I went back to the place that was the genesis of so much pain all those years ago. And I told them I’m holding out hope that one day she won’t be there anymore.

I don’t think disappointment or even anguish when our journey seems especially long is what distances us from God. I believe hopelessness does. Which is why I love Peter’s reminder that apathy is not in our Savior’s emotional repertoire. Jesus is not slow in keeping His promises; any perceived delay on our end is rooted in His divine patience. As we see clearly from the passage, Jesus has a reason for why He has waited so long to return to the world and deal with all that has gone wrong in it: He’s holding out for those who will eventually come to repentance. He’s waiting for the many wayward souls who will finally be restored to His Father at some point between today and that Final Day. He’s not slow! He’s long-suffering as He holds out hope for the lost—and the found. If this is how He treats those who don’t know Him yet, how certain should we be of His patience with those of us who because of His amazing grace already have a relationship with Him?

• HAVE YOU EVER been afraid that God was losing patience with you? If so, why?
• IF THE REASON He waits to return in His second coming is because He’s waiting patiently for more wayward, unbelieving people to be saved and restored to Him, what does that tell you about the way He treats your wayward seasons now that you’re already one of His children?
• IN LOOKING BACK over your life, do you notice any “delays” that seemed especially difficult at the time but now reflect His compassion? How has this changed your outlook on current delays?