If I’m honest, I have mixed feelings about the return of Christ.
I want him to come soon because I just can’t handle my chronic pain, the brokenness of my counselees, the ever-present evil and power of sin, the absence of truth and righteousness in myself, my family, the church, the world. It’s just so overwhelming. Jesus, please come quickly!
But I don’t want him to come quite yet, because there is so much to do! Things are not in order. My to-do list isn’t complete. I have unmet hopes and unfulfilled dreams. I want to live to see my children and my children’s children. Jesus, please wait a little longer!
. . . a rather temporal, earthly, self-centered perspective, I’m sure you’d agree.
But what if we tweak it just a little? What if our “mixed feelings” look like this:
I want him to come soon because I will see him face to face, and his judgments will be right, and the ungodly will be destroyed, and he will welcome me into the eternal kingdom – a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Jesus, please come quickly!
But I don’t want him to come quite yet, because the longer he delays, the more he saves. And as he wants all to reach repentance, so do I. Jesus, please wait a little longer!
So I patiently wait. Not that I may live a long life, but that many more may find true life in Jesus.
Count the patience of our Lord as salvation.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.
from 2 Peter 3
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Journey of the Word 
Thanks to a friend’s feedback, I want to clarify my meaning… My intention is not to provide a theology of Christ’s return or of predestination, but rather to point to the truths of 2 Peter 3 and how it clashes with my own flawed tendency to selfishly “wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God.” I am not at all implying that Jesus will save more souls than he planned. I’m saying that his “delaying in coming” means the saving of more souls than are saved today. As we understand this truth regarding how God is working, it gives us a more patient perspective as we wait for his return – which I think is at least one of the intents of 2 Peter 3.
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Lydia, I think the basic and straightforward reading of Peter’s words are just what you said. Our God is so gracious and merciful that He will wait for the last one of us who will repent to do so!
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Amen!! I, too, have experienced this feeling. I love your holy perspective on it that goes beyond our own desires of what we want to see happen on earth before he comes.
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My “not wanting” list includes the salvation of loved ones. Oh, I ache for that.
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