For People with Bishop Rob Wright
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
Delay
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Delay is one of the quickest ways to test what we really trust. When God’s timing does not match our urgency, we can start to panic, negotiate, or replace faith with something that feels more responsive. In Exodus, Moses is “delayed” on the mountain, and the newly freed community chooses a God made of gold because it feels available right now.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about why God’s pacing and our pacing collide so often, and why that collision can bring out our most reactive selves. From self-soothing and control to the pull of familiar habits that are not life-giving, the wilderness exposes what we worship when we cannot see what comes next. They also name the “prison mindset” that can linger after liberation, when freedom is real, but uncertainty still feels like a cage. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
God’s Pacing And Your Life
Bishop WrightI know somewhere deep that God's pacing is the best. And if we were to go even deeper, perhaps, maybe we go and look through our own spiritual photo album, I like to call it. And some of us can go back to chapters where we can sit now on the freedom side of that and say, Oh, if it wouldn't have been for that pacing then, or that patience exerted then, or that waiting on God then, I might not know this part of the sweetness of my life.
Moses’ Delay And The Golden Calf
MelissaWelcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I'm your host, Melissa Rau, and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week's For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode's description. Hello, Bishop.
Bishop WrightHey.
Speaker 1You entitled your devotion this week, Delay, based off of Exodus chapter 32, 1 to 14. Tell us about Moses.
Bishop WrightJust days into freedom, into the promised land, Moses is communing with God up on a mountain. Moses was delayed, the people said. So they made a more available, a more responsive God out of gold. How human of them. When delay comes, we are often tempted to deny or dismiss God. Prolonged suffering, disorientation, and despair can bring out our most godless selves. When this occurs, we might make gods of ourselves or for ourselves just to cope. But we have committed to a trusting relationship that can only be authenticated by being stretched over perceived delays in all manner of circumstances. That is just who we are. Maybe it wasn't a delay at all. Maybe it was the pacing necessary to create faithful individuals.
MelissaAnd darn it, patience is not one of my greatest virtues.
Bishop WrightYeah, yeah.
MelissaAnd so I really identify with the with the people in uh in the desert.
Bishop WrightUh yeah, me too. Right?
MelissaLike how often do we self self-soothe? And you said cope, but I guess like what would you say of patience here as it relates to our relationship with God?
Bishop WrightWell, I think the first thing I I want to say is that, you know, it's easy to sit in our air-conditioned offices or spaces at, you know, at uh you know, almost 6,000 years distance from all of this and to sort of castigate, you know, this uh band of uh newly uh ex-enslaved people of long ago. It's easy for us to do that, to be armchair theologians. Um uh but but they're facing uh scarcity in the wilderness, they're facing absolute disorientation. Uh generationally, they have prayed for this moment. Now they find themselves uh on the freedom side of the Red Sea, not knowing what comes next, um you know, with a with a not tried and true um uh leader, the whole war world is a is a sort of a windstorm for them. And and now uh assembled there in the camp, uh the ragtag leader uh Moses goes up the mountain to commune with God, spend some time with God. And uh I would say that the time that Moses spent there, we don't know how long it was, um, days, the time that Moses spent there uh started to surface the anxiety in the community. And uh, and and and what do we do uh when we get to those kinds of intersections? Well, we default to the familiar, even if the familiar is is not life-giving, and we sort of intellectually know it's not life-giving. So they start taking up the practices of their former slave masters, they start making uh a God out of gold. Uh, and uh, and then you know it's it's interesting if you read the text, and then then someone in the crowd shouts out, This is the God that delivered you out of the hand of Egypt, right? This is the God, this this one, this God we've made by our hands deserves to be worshipped. So I guess I want to say the big point here, the headline here is that um the way that God does time and the way that we hope God would do time is radically different. And and this is where despair can set in. This is when discouragement can set in. Um uh this is where uh all manner of ills can set in because God's pacing is not our pacing, and uh it can break us if we're really honest, and at the same time, it can build us. And so I don't know if I want to talk about patience just yet. I want to start off with talking about pacing.
MelissaOkay, so I can I can be patient for that.
Bishop WrightOkay, well, well done. Well done. Well, pacing is the hardest thing, right? So the pacing of the way that flowers grow, the pacing of the way that a child grows, I mean, on and on and on and on and on, the pacing of how long it takes for a company to get a contract and then to build an actual airplane and deliver on that contract. I mean, the world is full of pacing. Um, and uh, and yet we have found some way to manage that. Um, but when it comes to God, we we need God to be microwave popcorn, and that's just not how it works, right?
MelissaIt's almost like you know, when we get the thing that we're hoping for, yeah, we get on the other side of it, well, then we expect easy street from there on out.
Bishop WrightWell, and what's what's actual absolutely ironic is that this is a group of people who prayed for 400 years for this very day. And and yet, you know, and yet it's it's the delay that sets them off. And and you know, I guess when I write these sorts of things, I guess I write them because I know about these not these moments in in the in the life of God, not just intellectually, but you know, uh in sitting in my own prayers for a long time and wondering if my prayers went any higher than the ceiling, and uh, and and and leaning forward for an answer and and not necessarily getting an answer, uh, and and wondering, you know, hey, is is am I deluded in my faith? Is faith a delusion? All these things I I think are things that are part and parcel of a of a real and genuine life with God, which is we do wonder, we do delay, the delays do sort of trigger us. And if we're honest, uh sometimes if the delay is long enough, we start to take up godless actions.
Prison Mindset And What Worship Means
MelissaYeah, and I'm just sitting here thinking about prison and trappings and uh cages and liberation, and that I think what they were stuck in was a prisoner mindset. I don't know if you have anything to say about that, Bishop, because I feel like they were liberated in one sense, liberated from Pharaoh, and yet we're still finding themselves trapped within the desert.
Bishop WrightWell, yeah, I mean, uh I guess where my mind goes with your comment is is that and and now uh we don't have the king of Egypt as our master anymore, but now we are nevertheless in someone else's timeline, right? God's timeline, Moses' timeline. And uh yeah, I can imagine uh somebody said, just crowds being what they they are, thinkers being uh what they are, hey, we've traded sort of one master for another master. And and I and I think you know that's a that's a point to consider when you think about worship. So what is what is worship? So worship is is is basically when you boil it all down, that being with God and going God's way is worth it.
MelissaOh, I love that.
Bishop WrightRight, and so and so I think that that's what everybody has got to come to is that you know, is God's way, God's timing, God's pacing, and what that requires from me, is that worth it? You know, souls are made on the anvil of pain, suffering, and time.
MelissaAmen.
Bishop WrightAnd and and I hate that, and and and yet it is true. Uh the men and women uh uh over the millennia who have stood up and stood out have been men and women uh you know who have been forged in pain and suffering and disorientation, and and that has perfected in them uh depth and compassion. I mean, you know, uh Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years, uh you know, sort of uh just a political prisoner, and and he comes out and somehow uh he's made better in that he can show compassion to his former jailers. Um and and how that what that holds up uh for us uh in the world about our suffering. And uh if he can get over his suffering, perhaps what we can get over our suffering. It probably pales in comparison to his. Uh and and and on and on and on. And so, and so there's no doubt that um uh he felt like his freedom was delayed uh and and uh and unfairly uh and illegally, uh he was robbed of his freedom. So I guess what I'm saying is that this is the journey. I uh what I like about Jesus, I mean, fast forward from this text uh into Jesus. What I like about Jesus is there's truth in advertising with Jesus. Jesus never says, oh, you know, this thing is smooth, it's easy, uh, we're cruising, it's gonna just flow lovely. He never says that. He says, take up uh your cross and follow me. Um, and so that's all about being invited into Jesus' pacing, his steps, step by step, where he stops, where he goes. I mean, follow me is automatically accepting that I'm subordinate, right, to the Lord of all the worlds. And so I think that that that has to be squared up to uh if we're going to grow uh in grace and spiritual maturity, that um I I'm not always gonna like God's pacing, but I I know somewhere deep beyond my intellect, in my intellect and beyond my intellect, that God's pacing is the best. And um uh if we were to go even deeper, perhaps, uh maybe we go and look through our own spiritual photo album, I like to call it. Uh, and some of us can go back to chapters where uh we can sit now on the freedom side of that and say, oh, if it wouldn't have been for that pacing then or that patience exerted then, or that waiting on God then, I might not know this part of the sweetness of my life. And so I, you know, we have to recall that. And maybe uh uh, you know, that is part of the journey of Israel in this story, is that um they are then required as they go forward as a nation to become a nation, um, they are always called to remember, remember, remember, remember, remember, right? Remember that uh that your ancestors were wandering in the desert. Remember that time when God delivered you out of the bondage uh of the Egyptians, and et cetera. And so maybe that's the key to this is that uh when we want to give up, when delay triggers us to remember.
Seasons Not Clocks In God’s Timing
MelissaYou know, Bishop, I've got one more last uh one last question about expectation.
Bishop WrightYeah.
MelissaI feel like as someone who with of faith, you know, I expect certain things, but I think what you're saying is that it's not so much the expectation being unrealistic, but that the pacing, and so like what even is delay?
Bishop WrightRight. Well, you know, the the old the old folks, the old folks, uh, you know, uh old church folks say uh in speaking about God, he may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time. That's a that's a pithy way to say God's timing is best. And so what I like about your point is yes, we do have expectations that God will provide, uh, that God will comfort, that God will show mercy, uh, that uh that God will make a way out of no way. All these are um that God will give peace, um, you know, that that God will give comfort and consolation. Yes, these are uh expectations, and yet part and parcel of the journey with God is process. It is a process. And so this is where we are encouraged to look to nature and think in terms of seasons. Maybe that's a better way to think about this. I think we're thinking about the 12-hour clock. Uh, and and sometimes that works out with God. It might be more accurate to think about the four seasons of life uh of uh of um the four seasons of the year. It might be more accurate to think in terms of the way in which sturdy trees grow up. Uh, you know, uh uh remember uh when I think about God, I think more agrarian than uh sort of administrative.
MelissaYeah. So I guess with God, there really truly is no delay.
Bishop WrightGod is busy. I mean, and that's where the faith comes in. God is busy about the business of being God, and uh and and ours, and ours is to is to travel along and uh and hopefully uh join God uh in uh in understanding the wisdom uh of the process.
Where To Connect And Subscribe
MelissaListeners, thank you for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright of by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Subscribe, share the episode, and we will be back with you next week.