“I want it now!” (IWIN) thinking has a vise-like hold on all of us. We know what we want, and we want it NOW.
The best and most recent example of IWIN is our desperate pleas to shoo the pandemic out of town. We want the COVID-19 restrictions lifted NOW!
IWIN thinking has moved from a rare occurrence to a daily expectation. Once we have a taste of fast, we don’t want any part of slow.
When technology rendered waiting unnecessary, if not obsolete, the game was over and IWIN became the backdrop for everything in our life’s movie.
That is when our behavior morphed from wait and see to push and expect.
But IWIN is not really about the technology. It’s about the mindset and sense of expectation created by the what the technology can do (FAST).
Breakthroughs in speed leaked out of technology and encouraged us to expect anything and everything in life to be IMMEDIATE.
It was downhill from that point and we quickly began thinking about the next achievement and purchase and convenience. Our rushed pace convinces us that we are behind. In the process, peace in the present is lost.
It does not take long before our happiness is dependent on everything going just right, on time, and perfect.
Impatience is a form of unbelief.
Beating back the IWIN urge is not rolling over and becoming lazy in our life. It is deepening our God-powered patience to connect with him intimately and continually.
Staying tethered to his perspective every day will give us the perspective we need on what NOW means and when something is on time or late or needs to be dropped entirely.
I ask God to help me wait patiently on him for his next move. To keep me from going ahead of him.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you tempted to get impatient with God? How can you minimize your “I WANT IT NOW” (IWIN) thinking?
“May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.” Colossians 1:11
