I'm Not ADD

I’m not ADD. Really, I’m not. I may occasionally find myself deficit in attention, but I wouldn’t call it a disorder. I think it’s the caffeine.



What I really struggle with is the ability to be still and wait. It’s more an PDD—Patience Deficit Disorder. I tend to want things to happen a bit more quickly than later.

Waiting has always seemed like wasting time. Having to wait for someone to get ready, or waiting for a red light, or waiting for the game to start, places me in a time bog. Everything slows down when I’m waiting. Like reigning in a race horse. I’m made to run, not stroll.

You know what you call a fly with no wings? A walk. He’s not made to walk. He’s made to buzz the atmosphere. He’ll die if he can’t fly. Or at least he’ll make it easier to get swatted.

I know the feeling. I want to go, to move forward, to gather no moss. I’m a rolling stone, not a rock in a terrarium.  

But God says wait. He says so not as a punishment, but as a means by which I can move cautiously toward His will. Those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength. There is purpose in waiting. There is reward in waiting. There are provisions that only come from waiting.

What if I get to the airport too early? Do I rush into any plane fixing to take off just because my plane isn’t ready to leave? There is a destination to which I’m heading. Getting to it requires waiting until my plane is loading. I can still get someplace on another plane but who knows where that place will be.

Waiting allows for God to align the factors that make for the greater blessing. It says, “I’m trusting God, not rushing into the wind asking Him to bless me.” Waiting says, “I want what God wants.”

As a goal, we need to be where God wants us to be, when God wants us to be there, doing what God wants us to be doing, the way God wants it done. Ain’t gonna happen unless we learn to wait upon the Lord.

Trusting God is Always a Choice

I took a group of students to a wilderness camp a few weeks ago. Great trip!

Part of the experience at the camp was learning to trust. Each activity required special equipment—typically harnesses—that kept you from falling if something went wrong. Whether it was standing on top of a telephone pole and diving out to a trapeze swing fifty feet off the ground, or rappelling down the side of a sheer cliff, or climbing the face of a mountain, or zip-lining from about three thousand feet up…each person would be strapped into a harness and attached to a safety line.

It’s amazing how our self-preservation instincts kick in to tell us not to do such frightening things. That’s where the test part comes in—to see if we can overcome instinct and trust the equipment. It is quite the struggle for some.

You see, we have a list of expectations that form our comfort zone—things like: height, visibility, temperature, objects, control, people. It’s our space. Anything that threatens our space challenges our comfort. Falling probably scares us more than most other threats.

To fight the fear of falling, when in reality we cannot fall because of a harness, we have to rely on trust. I have to convince myself that the harness is trustworthy. I may slip some but I will not be hurled headlong onto the jagged rocks of a rugged ravine. The fight is in my mind. The moment says, “Jump.” My mind says, “You’re crazy.” The harness says, “I’m here.” Imagination says, “You’re gonna die.” Reality says, “You’re safe.” The person waiting behind me says, “Just do it.” Who do I trust?

When it comes to faith, both our spirit and our mind are engaged. Of the two, our mind is the hardest to convince that God can be trusted. It is so polluted by suggestions of His inadequacies that fear makes us doubt. Trusting becomes a battle. The battle is for submission of my mind. My spirit agrees but my mind controls the body. The body hears the spirit but obeys the mind.

When the mind trusts, the body will jump. When the body jumps the whole life is filled with an exhilaration reserved only for those who act upon their faith.

 ^{PS 37:23} The steps of a man are established by the LORD, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the LORD is the One who holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.