Why does God at times take his time? When Elijah in the Old Testament despaired over Israel's political and ethical condition, why did God tell him that help would come only after a series of troubling events? Why, when the next-to-last verse of the book of Revelation ends with the plea, "Come, Lord Jesus," have two millennia gone by without his return?

Maybe we need to learn and relearn our lesson: Nothing works. Politics doesn't work all that much. Moral renewal by itself doesn't work. One biblical description of how the world works comes in the second book of Kings, when Elisha's servant fears enemy troops: Elisha asks God to "'open his eyes that he may see.' So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire."

What's striking is that those angels with their horses and chariots are there all the time. If we could see them, we would think differently.

Curiously, one of the best depictions of how seeing changes everything comes in the loopy but lovely movie "Field of Dreams" (1989). For those who haven't viewed it, Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) uproots his lucrative cornfield and puts in a baseball diamond to which long-dead players mysteriously come. Ray, his wife, his daughter, and a disillusioned author can see the players, but no one else can.

Since the field of dreams is not producing a cash crop, Ray is going bankrupt. His brother-in-law pressures him to sell the farm. Through a startling event, the brother-in-law, who was blind, suddenly can see the players on the field. His immediately transformed advice: "Don't sell this farm, Ray. Do not sell this farm."

When we see the array of forces lined up against Jesus and those who try to follow him, we are often tempted to sell the farm. That's when we need especially to pray that our eyes be opened, so that we can see what Elisha urges: "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."