eBay is not for the impatient.

I confess; I am not as patient as the rest of you. Yes, I have bought an item and opened it in the car before I got home. Okay, one time I bought new shoes and wore them out of the store, carrying the old pair out in the package. And then I get the bright idea to check out eBay.

It started innocently enough; I am spending way too much time tied to my office and not enough time on my MBWA - Management by Wandering Around.  There is a sensed need to be more visible in the community at this stage of our church growth, even if it is walking through the mall with a cup of coffee awaiting those Divine Appointments some call chance encounters. Needing to free myself from the tyranny of the urgent, but with a Type "A" need for connectivity and instant access to information, I decided to buy a Blackberry.

The T-Mobile store wanted $350 with a $50 rebate. Too much. The T-Mobile lady suggested I check eBay, as there are always new devices being released, and lots of the must-have-only-the-latest-and-greatest types sell great merchandise to move up a notch. This was my first real experience bidding on eBay, and these are my observations.

(1) Impatient, impulse buyers struggle with the concept of a 7 day purchase process. Are you kidding me? Offer a price and then wait? Please.

(2) The buyer is at the mercy of the seller. I "won" the bid --if it can be deemed 'winning' to be given the opportunity to give a complete stranger your money in advance and hope they ship the item and it is as described-- and then the mess began.

In my Paypal transfer I added $23 +/- for shipping, foolishly believing that would rapidly move a small package under a pound in weight from California to Hawaii in 2, maybe 3 days. In the instructions block I clearly requested that the seller use that $23 to ship via DHL, UPS or FedEx. I have had bad experiences in Hawaii with delayed, damaged and even missing merchandise with the USPS. The next day, the seller shipped the Blackberry -- via Express Mail using the good ole USPS.

That was on Friday, October 14. I am writing this mid-day on Thursday, October 20. The mail carrier has come and gone, and no Blackberry.

Now, I realize that there is some 2,500 miles of Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, but we have been part of the United States since August of 1959, and we are, in a sense, California's neighboring state. Am I expecting too much? I already delayed my need for tech gratification for a week during the bidding process, and now I sit here nearing the end of week two with no Blackberry.

I feel a need to blame someone. Should I blame the seller who clearly ignored my shipping preference and used the Postal Service? Should I be upset at the USPS for failing to move an Express Mail package from California to Hawaii in 6 days? Should I blame President Bush? (I mean, some people seem to think he is responsible for everything that goes wrong, so...) This should not be, and I don't handle "Wait!" well.

This is a metaphor for my spiritual life, in many ways. There are things I want to see happen -- things I believe are MEANT to happen -- and often I pray and ask God "When?" and He answers "Soon."

I have learned to ask a follow-up question: "Lord, do you mean your soon, or my soon?"