When Going Slower Is Better

You may have heard the saying, “If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.” My version of the expression is more like, “If at first you do not succeed, go faster next time.” I try to think of myself as an efficient person and pride myself on reaching the bottom of my to-do list with time to spare. While I do get many things done well, trying to go fast has a few side effects. One is that I am a bit of a klutz. Things tend to spill, topple over, or drop around me. Another side effect is frustration at those things that refuse to be done quickly, like the preparation of some meals or drying my hair before work. I thought about this recently while trying to remove a sticky label from my debit card. I started by peeling it off from one corner, but the label started to split, leaving a sticky residue behind. I stopped and switched to another corner.

I did not want to be stuck scraping off sticker gunk with my fingernail. The same thing happened. I changed corners once more, going very slowly, and this time it worked. As I slowly peeled, the entire sticker began to come off and left no residue behind. Encouraged, I worked even slower, and it not only peeled off the side of the sticker I was working on but also the sticky part of the paper that had split and stuck on the other corners.

It seemed like the slower I went, the better the result. This past year, I have been dealing with a traumatic event that happened to me.

As usual, I have been trying to get over this thing quickly, certain that I could push past the pain and the anxiety it has caused me and get back to being the person I was before. I felt tired of being sad, scared, and hopeless. I wanted it to be over.

But that is not how life works. Slowly I have been learning, through the patience of God and the help of therapy, that some things take time.

There are some things God wants to do in us and for us, but for them to be done well, we need to allow God time to accomplish His work. It is probably more time than we want to give. But I am beginning to learn. As I practice going slower and waiting on God, I discover that His timing is always better. It is exactly what I need.

It turns out that going at God’s pace, even if it is slower, is always better. “It is good to wait quietly for . . . the Lord” (Lamentations 3:26, NLT).

Rhonda Bowen