Its seems as if whenever my family is about to embark from our house—whether to the supermarket for an hour or to the beach for a week—my children find a way to delay the departure. They linger. Somehow they manage to lose the shoes they just tied. They go back upstairs to comb their hair one last time. They suddenly realize they are too hungry to start the journey without a snack, even though it is to a restaurant that we are headed. Then, when they have run out of delaying tactics, they finally trudge to the car, only to remember something they have to bring with them and race back in . . . where they lose their shoes again.
Why do my children linger? Why would they not want to immediately start a journey for a place they know will be good for them? Why would they keep going back for things they know they will not need there? Is it just children that do that?
This morning I read of the escape of Lot’s family from Sodom. (Genesis: 19). Surrounded by wickedness, threatened with violence by the Sodomites and convinced of the city’s imminent destruction, Lot knows he must leave Sodom, and yet he . . . lingers. In fact, he never actually stops lingering—finally, angels drag the Lot Family outside the city to safety. But even there, Ms. Lot is turned into an eternal salt lick because she cannot help but cast back a lingering look. She lingered with her eyes. Of that Christ said this: “(r)emember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.” (Luke 17:32-33, The Message).
So why the Big Linger? When God offers us life on His terms why do we find a way to lose our shoes?
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