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WAIT     7'?m2f Why does God make us wait for answered prayers?

(scene: a semicircle of chairs facing audience)

LIZ -- (enters carrying a business proposal, begins pacing) What
kind of an answer is that? We make a simple request and the boss
sends us to the conference room to wait. Wait for what?

AMY -- (follows carrying a business proposal, sits) I don't
know. Seems a little strange. Did you see the sly look on his
face?

LIZ -- Yes. You know, I think he's lost it. I think he's finally
snapped a twig.

AMY -- I doubt it. I think he's in full control of his
faculties.

LIZ -- Then, why didn't he just give us what we asked for? Why
make us wait? He could have picked up the phone and made it
happen like (snaps fingers) that.

AMY -- I know. Our request was trivial compared to most of the
requests he gets. Yet he made us wait.

LIZ -- He's lost it, I tell you. He's finally lost it. If he
starts making everybody in the company wait for the smallest 
requests, this company will grind to a halt. 

AMY -- That's just it. He's not making everybody wait. Just us.

LIZ -- Maybe he's got it in for us. Yeah, that's it. He's trying 
to get us to turn in our resignations.

AMY -- Why would he do that? He's never said anything derogatory 
about either one of us. Besides, we would be the last people in 
the company he fires. We're the only people in the company who 
go to his church. (snaps fingers) That's it!

LIZ -- What's it? Have you lost it too? I think everybody in 
this company is going bananas.

AMY -- No. This is about church.

LIZ -- Church.

AMY -- Yes.

LIZ -- You think he's making us wait because we go to his 
church?

AMY -- Yes.

LIZ -- You have lost it. I'm the only sane one left and I'm not 
sure how long I'm going to last.

AMY -- No. Don't you see? The boss is going to lead our Bible
study next Wednesday. I think this is an exercise to teach us a
lesson.

LIZ -- A lesson.

AMY -- Yes.

LIZ -- What kind of lesson?

AMY -- I don't know. What lesson can we learn from waiting?

LIZ -- Well, the lesson I've learned is that everybody in this 
company is ready for the looney bin.

AMY -- (stands, paces) I'm sure this is for our benefit. But 
how?

LIZ -- As if a person could ever benefit from waiting.

AMY -- This is about the Bible study, alright. Think about 
"waiting" from God's point of view.

LIZ -- You really think that's what this is all about?

AMY -- I'm almost sure of it. Where does God make us wait?

LIZ -- Only every prayer I've prayed for the last six months.

AMY -- (snaps fingers) That's it!

LIZ -- What's it? All I said was....

AMY -- This is about waiting for a request. This is exactly like 
asking God for something that he could give us in the twinkling 
of an eye, yet, he makes us wait. Why does he do that?

LIZ -- Don't ask me. I just get mad when I think about all the 
stuff the Lord makes me wait for.

AMY -- You've just hit the nail on the head!

LIZ -- I have?

AMY -- Yes. What the boss is trying to teach us is applicable
both to business and to our prayer lives.

LIZ -- You think so?

AMY -- Yes, if we can learn the lesson from business, we'll 
probably get some insight into God's own thinking when he makes 
us wait for an answer to prayer.

LIZ -- And that lesson is....

AMY -- I don't know. I haven't figured that out yet.

LIZ -- That was a big waste of time.

AMY -- (pacing) This is all about time. But, God would never 
make us wait merely to waste our time. What is he up to? Let's 
rethink our proposal. (opens proposal, scans)

LIZ -- What about our proposal?

AMY -- What's wrong with it?

LIZ -- Nothing's wrong with it. It was a good proposal. That's 
why we took it to the boss.

AMY -- No. Don't you understand? What I'm saying is, when God
makes us wait, the first thing we should ask is, what's wrong
with our proposal, not from OUR point of view, but from HIS
point of view. If you were the president of a multimillion
dollar company looking at our proposal, what would you think
about it?

LIZ -- For a multimillion dollar company, this proposal is 
chicken feed.

AMY -- (snaps fingers) Bingo!

LIZ -- Bingo.

AMY -- If God makes us wait, one of the first questions we 
should ask is, are we thinking big enough? 

LIZ -- So, you think we should go in and ask the boss for more 
money?

AMY -- No. Yes. Well, maybe.

LIZ -- Which is it?

AMY -- I'm talking about the spiritual lesson here. I think the
reason the Lord makes us wait sometimes is because we're not
thinking big enough. Waiting gives us time to think about the
possibilities from God's point of view. The person who created
this huge universe out of nothing thinks big. And so should we.
If God were to answer a little tiny prayer request for us,
people would think we accomplished it on our own. God would not
get credit for it. But if the answer to prayer is huge, everyone
would know for certain that we didn't do it on our own.

LIZ -- Oh, I see what you're saying. When I ask for ordinary
stuff, I need to ask for it in a big way so that God will get
the credit.

AMY -- Exactly.

LIZ -- No wonder God made me wait. I'm not thinking big enough.

AMY -- Waiting also reminds us that our proposal may not be
consistent with the company's future.

LIZ -- Consistent.

AMY -- Yes. What if, unbeknown to us, the Boss is planning a
merger with another company. What if our proposal would make
our company less attractive to the other company for some
reason.

LIZ -- The same might be true for God. Maybe God makes us wait
because of circumstances we can't see yet. Waiting will let
those circumstances unfold before us. Then, if we still want to
pray for our request, we'll change the request to include the
new circumstances.

AMY -- Exactly.

LIZ -- I'm beginning to think like a boss.

AMY -- Well, Boss, would you grant us this proposal? (pats
proposal)

LIZ -- (snaps fingers) Oh, speaking of a merger....

AMY -- I wasn't saying that our company is going to merge....

LIZ -- No, but what if the boss knew that our proposal would
somehow endanger our jobs after the merger? Or what if the Boss
knew that this proposal would trigger a chain of events that
would cause us to quit the company.

AMY -- You're right. No matter how good the proposal looks from
other aspects, if it would cause us to fall away, the Lord will
make us wait until we can foresee the dangers.

LIZ -- I'm pretty good at thinking like a boss, huh?

AMY -- Actually, you've just pointed to another reason why the 
Lord makes us wait.

LIZ -- Why? What do you mean?

AMY -- Waiting gives us time to mature spiritually so we can be 
ready for more challenges when the prayer is finally answered.

LIZ -- Wait a minute! Are you saying that I'm immature?!

AMY -- (exiting) Let's go tell the Boss that we got the message.

LIZ -- (follows) You take that back. I am not immature.

©2007 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
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