Last week I visited the Home Depot store. I love Home Depot. Every time I go there I can’t help but think of what new ideas to incorporate in my home. If I had the money and the time, the house would be remodeled and decorated new everyday. But on this day I had a specific purpose in mind… on a mission for floor tiles. Roaming through the flooring section, a sales person approached me and asked if he could help. I noticed a scattering of titles that were discounted, but they didn’t have enough of one color, pattern or size. The sales associate wanted to know if I had someone to install the tiles. I told him “sort of.” As a cost-saving factor, a friend of mine was going to teach me how to install tile. Well, “Mr. Sales Associate” decided to educate me on tile installation. Without asking for his advice he rambled off a doctoral thesis on what to do, including precise examples of the different tools and their purpose, gout colors, mud, etc, etc. I interrupted him and said he forgot to give me the textbook to read before hand or at least something I could follow along during the presentation. This didn’t stop him; he kept on going and going and going, like an energizer bunny. I glanced at the time and it was more than 30 minutes of loquaciousness and nothing I would remember. Finally, I informed him it was time for me to leave; my visit was not suppose to be this long. He wanted to know if I was available on the weekend to attend a tile installation class he teaches at Home Depot.  I told to him weekends were bad for me. I go to church. He looked at me a little strange, and in an appealing and soft voice he said, “Jesus can wait.” At that moment I knew it was time to leave. I thanked him for his offer.

As I was driving home, his words still rang in my ears, “Jesus can wait.” I recalled times when I took advantage of Jesus, putting him on the back burner and finding many excuses to make him wait. So much precious time lost, either fighting my own battles, or being involved with things/people that were not Christ-centered. I look back now and thank God that He did wait, only because He is loving, forgiving and long suffering. But, he doesn’t wait forever.

When we continue to ignore him and reject him, he leaves because he doesn’t feel wanted and appreciated in our lives. So, I can no longer make the mistake of putting Jesus on hold, because he won’t wait much longer…