God’s timing is perfect,” Dr. James Dobson argues convincingly. But sometimes when God moves so much more slowly than I might like, his timing surely does frustrate me. Then I’m like the fellow who prayed, “Lord, give me patience. Now!”
For more than two decades I have been flirting with book publishers, dangling irresistible manuscripts before their eyes, trying vainly to seduce them into publishing my deathless prose, dreaming of the audience the book market might open for ministry.
But the publishers I chose to woo were not easily beguiled, I soon discovered. For all my efforts I accumulated a pile of ego-salving, highly complimentary rejection letters. (“Your material is some of the best we’ve seen but, unfortunately, nobody knows you, so we probably could not sell your book. . . .”)
So I have prayed. And waited. And prayed. And waited. For literally years. All the time quite sure I was writing quality stuff. All the time turning calendar pages and wondering silently if, like Abraham and Sarah of old, I would be too decrepit to produce much when God finally said, “Now.”
Then last year it happened. Following the accepted practice of authors searching for publishers nowadays, I circulated three or four chapters of the same book manuscript The God Who Puts Us Back Together to half a dozen companies at once.
Imagine my delight when I received contracts from not one but two publishers. Both firms liked my book. Both said they wanted to publish it. For me this was a brand new dilemma I had never dreamed I would face. I agreed with one of the publishers, who chuckled, “It’s a nice problem to have, isn’t it?”
Then I had to wait again. More patiently, now, however. Waiting for the several-month-long process of editing, formatting, typesetting, titlingall the steps it takes to get a book on the shelves.
It’s not easy for me to wait. I’m in a hurry. Already I’ve written another book this first one may open the door for. But God evidently knew I needed the delay. A decade or so to clarify thoughts. Another to hone writing skills. Over half a century to learn to trust him and to believe his promise, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him.”