Slow Food, Pregnancy, and God's Timing

There are few movie characters I relate to more than Inigo Montoya, the disgruntled Spaniard of The Princess Bride, played with great humor by Mandy Patinkin.

(And yes, the actor's name really is Mandy Patinkin. Say it out loud if you need a giggle. It totally sounds like a doll for 5-year olds...)

                                                                     --Photo borrowed from Princess Bride Wiki.

At one point, Inigo is told to be patient. To this he responds with a great sigh, and the wonderful words, "I hate wait."

Amen, brother.

I "hate wait," too. I like to go fast. I was always the first kid done with tests at school.

I drive in the fast lane on the freeway.

I am the queen of the 30-minute meal and the champion of the question "How can we do this more efficiently?"

I try not to preach a 20-minute sermon when a 15-minute one will do the same job (or perhaps a better one).

I wash all of my clothes together to save time on sorting. Perhaps this is why I have several pink shirts that used to be white...

This ability to go fast, to move fast, to do things fast, is both a blessing and a curse.

While it does make me efficient in many areas of my life, I'm also learning on various fronts that going fast is not always a virtue. In fact, it seldom is.

Pregnancy has been a school in slowness for me. I can't do as much as I used to be able to do, due to fatigue and nausea. I get tired more easily. I work more slowly. Bed time often comes at 9pm instead of midnight.

Not only that, but there is no way to rush pregnancy. There's no super food I can eat or pill I can take to make the whole journey go from 40 weeks to 20. Each day and week is necessary for the baby to grow healthy and strong, and there is no rushing those days of crucial development.

On the weeks where my husband and I remember to take a "belly picture," the thought in my mind is usually, "Only ___ weeks! But it feels like I've been pregnant forever!"

Here is my "only" 17 weeks picture, from two weeks ago:

This little human grows at its own pace. There's no hurrying it up or rushing it. It will come when it is ready, and until then I must learn to wait.

Food is also teaching me how to be more patient. Since going gluten free I haven't had the luxury of hitting up the McDonald's when I'm running late or even eating at one of our town diners when I don't feel like cooking. 99% of the time, my husband and I cook for ourselves, at our home.

Without the convenience of fast food, I've begun to learn the joys of slower food. We still make quick meals now and then, but we also experiment more with meals that take time.

We have fallen in love with our slow cooker. We know now that a really good soup takes more than an hour. We have learned that spending Saturday afternoons slicing a pile of vegetables will pay great dividends later in the week. We spend more time talking across the dinner table and less time eating in the car.

We've even gotten brave and started to grow some of our own food in the back garden. Talk about the delicious rewards of patience!

It's taken me years to admit, but I now deeply believe that our God is usually a God of slowness. Sure, God can work in a lightning's flash, and sometimes he does. But more often, God works little by little, sanding down our rough edges, filling in our cracks, mending our souls.

This Sunday I'm preaching on James 4:8 - "Come close to God and God will come close to you." It's such a simple instruction, but it takes a whole lifetime to live into. As we draw near in daily disciplines of prayer, reading Scripture, walking with other believers, worshiping, God draws near to us. As we walk with him, he transforms us.

I'm always awed by people who have walked with Jesus for decades and decades. They have a gentleness of spirit that cannot be manufactured in a day or a week or a year. They have a steadiness and security about them that cannot be bought for any price.

I long for this discipleship in my own life. Slow and steady. Step by step. So often I want a quick result, a fast resolution, a rapid fix. Yet God works in seasons and years. My pregnancy is teaching me this, ever so slowly. My new eating habits are teaching me this as well.

Slow and steady may win the race, but should we really be racing at all?

Here's to a simpler, slower life. Let us amble. Let us wander. Let us worship. Let us praise.