The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all.
1 Samuel 1:2 (NIV)

I have had a lot of people asking me about my book over the past couple of weeks. The publisher’s official launch was just about two weeks ago and it’s stirred a lot of interest and questions. Many of the questions I’ve received have been about time.

“How much time did it take you to write the book?” is perhaps the most asked question.

The question has three answers.

The actual writing took between 2-3 months. I rose every morning at 5:00 a.m., grabbed my coffee, walked straight to the keyboard and wrote for one hour. At 6 o’clock I stopped writing and forgot about it until the following morning. I didn’t count the exact number but the first draft was finished between 60 and 90 days. Then with edits, rewrites, and publishing took over twice that amount of time.

So, you could say it took 60-90 days to write, and 10 months total from start to publishing.

The idea for the book came to me over a decade ago. I was journaling one day over a pint at the local pub and I decided to list all of the “life lessons” that I’d learned from my career. I began to simply write all the spiritual principles I’d picked up along the line. When I was finished, there were over 30 of them. “This is a book,” I said to myself.

So, you could say it took over a decade.

The fact is that the book is not just about my business career, but my life story. I was dead set that I was going to do one thing in life. It took years for God to steer me to what it was He really purposed for me. And then came the long slog of having to learn the many lessons and spiritual principles.

So, you could say it took about 45 years.

Today’s chapter is one of those dramatic inflection points in the Great Story.

Samuel steps into his own as a true leader of his people. He becomes Israel’s priest, prophet, and final judge.

Samuel calls Israel to true repentance. Hearts turn. Idols are removed. Lives are sincerely and ritually poured out and surrendered to God.

God thunders from heaven, throwing the Philistine’s into confusion and making way for a major victory. The result was not only recaptured territory from the Philistines, but a peace treaty with another enemy as well.

Israel famously sets up standing stone as a memorial to these momentous events. They call the memorial rock “Ebenezer” meaning “stone of help” with the understanding “Thus far, God has helped us.”

As I meditated on these things in the quiet this morning, I had a veritable plethora of options to think and write about. There are so many great spiritual themes and lessons lying on the surface.

But I was drawn to an easily overlooked verse in the chapter.

The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all.

It’s equivalent of the graphic transition that comes up for a few seconds in a movie that says, “Twenty years later.”

Two decades pressed into a single sentence.

As I look back on my life journey from the 60 year mile-marker, I can point you to many dramatic moments and seasons along the way. Like the Great Story itself, not all of those dramatic moments are mountain tops. I’ve had my share of dark valleys. Some were low points that life brought my way — and some were pits in which I willingly and foolishly placed myself.

Right now, I’m experiencing a bit of a mountain top with the publishing of my book. But it didn’t happen in just 60-90 days of typing. It happened over a decade of waiting for the right time — and God’s purposes. It happened over a 32 year career and a 45 year life journey required for the content to planted, germinate, and grow.

Oaks grow while nobody notices.

In the quiet this morning, I’m reminded of a fact that data has clearly revealed in my career researching customer expectations. With the exponential rise in the speed of rising technology and the increasing speed at which we can do almost everything in life, we are an increasingly impatient culture. We want what we want and we want it now.

How quickly can the drone arrive with my spur-of-the-moment Amazon order?

And here is the hard reality I must face as a follower of Jesus: God exists outside of time, so He is never in a hurry.

Between the opening of today’s chapter to the dramatic action it contains there was twenty-years.

Twenty-years of doing hum-drum every day life.
Twenty-years of Samuel learning, maturing, preparing.
Twenty-years of the people’s hearts being cultivated.

God’s Kingdom and His purposes don’t cater to the human expectations of timeliness. They are operating on an eternal scale outside of time. I’ve learned that life flows much better for me when I surrender my desires and expectations to the timing and purposes God has for me. My job is to simply keep walking the journey, following Jesus’ footsteps, and loving people well.

The fruits of the Spirit do not include speed, industriousness, or achievement.

The fruit of the Spirit does, however, include patience.

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