Do you Want to be an Overnight Sensation?

I’m no overnight sensation.

In fact, I sometimes really dislike people who are.

I know they claim it took lots of effort and hard work to get where they did, but we all know that somehow their tipping point came just a little sooner, a little steeper, and a little flashier than the rest of ours.

Take my friend Jon for instance. I saw a video he recently made where he describes starting a blog on a whim. Eight posts later 4000 people showed up to his site.

I know what the correct Christian things to say are and I try to say them out loud. I mumble things like: “Praise God, I’m so happy for you”, or “It’s such a blessing to know that God blessed you this way. Be blessed and bless others in return”.

But the truth is that I’m too busy battling a green headed monster making his way up my neck to worry about saying the “right things” with the right smile on my face.

Overnight sensations are a hindrance to my Christian walk. And they seem to be all over the place. There’s that girl who met Mr.Perfect on eharmony the first day she signed on while I’m still muddling through my list of guys who live in Singapore.  Then there’s that guy who signed up on twitter and passed 10,000 followers while I was still trying to figure out how to word a smart thought in 140 characters or less.

I know you may be tempted to think that I’m calling the kettle black. My life looks glamorous from your point of view. Maybe you’re thinking I’m your overnight sensation. Let me adjust your sight a little bit. I tend do things the hard way. College wasn’t enough torture, so I went to 4 more years of school, another 6 for my training, and another 2 for good luck, and I still put in years of overnight shifts to try to be the best doctor I could be.

I felt called to ministry over 10 years ago. I started out teaching a class of 5 elderly women. Just when things started looking good with double digit attendance, I moved up to Chicago and had to start all over again.

No. No overnight sensations in my gene pool. Simply lots of hard hard work and a word that I still can’t seem to swallow without some severe heartburn: Waiting.

As my mind wanders to Scriptures, I realize that I’m actually in pretty good company. There really aren’t any overnight sensations in God’s story. Abraham spent a lifetime waiting for a boy, Moses 40 years in the wilderness, Joseph was in prison for a while longer than he should have been, and David knew the inside of a cave pretty darn well.

What do we learn from the anti-overnight sensation?

1. Waiting is part of the process. It makes you who Christ wants you to be.

2. Out with jealousy, in with joy. Margaret Feinberg tweeted this yesterday: “even two vines planted next to each other require significantly different pruning in order to produce fruit”. She’s right. God works in different ways with different people. Don’t let jealousy kill you.

3. There is only one sensational thing in my life. Jesus Christ, God almighty in the flesh, died for my sin to give me free life eternal and freedom from sin and shame.

This story is not about me. It’s about someone far greater, far gentler far wiser, far mightier.

He’s my overnight sensation!

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