We don’t like to wait. We rush to the next thing. I know it is true about me, and it isn’t difficult to look around and see that we have built our culture around ‘not waiting’. For example:

Fast food. We have sacrificed the quality for the quick. We’ve all seen the documentaries and the statistic yet continue to flood into the drive thru’s of our favorite eateries. And to dig deeper, consider how many times you have become impatient or frustrated when the ‘fast food’ or ‘drive thru’ line took an extra two minutes on your order or told you to pull up and they’ll bring it out to you. We don’t want to wait.

The Fast Lane/Passing lane. We are already moving faster than a human being can go on our own as we fly down highways at an average 65mph…but we want a lane where we can go even faster and not have to wait in traffic. Remember the ‘road rage’ you felt when you got stuck behind a tractor or someone on a scooter?

Track your package/next day delivery. When we buy something, we want it delivered within the week. And we want to know where our package is at all time, from the factory to our doorstep.

Christmas Decorations before Thanksgiving. Okay, maybe this is just my pet-peeve. Stores putting decorations and items for the next season or holiday out months before. Christmas stuff as soon as Halloween is over (bypassing Thanksgiving). Valentine’s day immediately after Christmas. Our family has a rule (my rule) to wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas tree.

I could go on and on: Insta-pots, Instant streaming, Immediate download. Lying about your kid’s age so that they can have social media before the recommended age limit. Fake I.D.s, Sex outside of marriage. 

We don’t like to wait. We have equated waiting with bad. 

We believe that waiting is a form of oppression.

But waiting is part of the life abundant. And there is abundant life found in the waiting. 

Consider the farmer. He cultivates the ground. He plants the seeds, and then he waits. During the waiting, that seed is growing and developing into maturity to produce a harvest. 

And such is true of our waiting. In our waiting there is growth and development. In our waiting there is GOD, present and available. 

It is in our waiting that we know God. We experience what God has for us. 

10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!”

Psalm 46:10

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Isaiah 37:7

I guess I have considering this idea of waiting because of all that has happened in the last year. So much of this past year was filled with waiting: waiting to see how bad the Coronavirus was; waiting to see if numbers would level off or go down; waiting for a vaccine, waiting for restrictions to lift; waiting to move forward.

There were weeks (and months) where everything was at a standstill. And the language was:

            I cannot wait until we can get back to normal

            I just want to get past this so we can move on with our lives.

But something that has been on my heart is: If God is sovereign over all, and in full control, then didn’t he have a plan for the stand still? Was there something good in the season of waiting?

GOD STORY IS FILLED WITH PURPOSEFUL WAITING

If we consider the story of God as found in the Bible, we can find that one of God’s great tools for growing his people is WAITING.

• Job waiting in his suffering              
• Abraham waiting on his promised son
• Israel’s captivity in Egypt                  
• 40 years waiting in the wilderness for Promised land
• David waiting to be king                    
• Israel waiting for the Messiah
• The disciples waiting for the resurrection
• The church waiting for Christ’s second coming.

‘And what more shall I say, for time would fail me to tell of…’ Noah in the boat, Hannah, Jacob & Rachel, Joseph in prison, Daniel in the lion’s den, Jonah in the belly of the fish, Elizabeth and Zachariah, and many more. All of these waited. Some waited well, others waited restlessly. 

And the greatest story that wove throughout thousands of years and every story was the thread of redemption fulfilled in Jesus. Adam and Eve sinned – but God didn’t immediately redeem mankind. He waited…on purpose. And in the waiting we have the story.  

Each of these stories revolved around waiting. And God had a perfect plan for their lives that we can clearly see now, but it was good because of the waiting. 

Today we see waiting as a waste of our time, and injustice against our rights and a squandering of our money and mental capacity. 

But nothing is wasted with God. 

31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

If we think about this scripture and consider all of the ‘heroes of the faith’ mentioned above, we can see how in those seasons of waiting, God was doing some pretty great things.

• Strength being renewed. Renewal, refreshment and endurance for the next thing.
• The ability to listen to and hear from God
• Giving Rest. We need it and never do it enough. Sometimes God stops our lives so we will rest.
• Developing a deeper trust and stronger faith in Him.
• Answering prayer
• Building character and wisdom through discipline.
• Letting us Understand God’s sovereignty and the suffering

There is something good about experiencing a time of lacking, need and wanting. We can find our needs joyfully fulfilled in HIM.

ARE WE WAITING WELL?

Are you too busy trying to push through this time of waiting that you are wasting the time that God is not wasting? 

Maybe you are in a season of waiting. Perhaps you are seeing it as a countdown to the next thing…but this season of waiting IS the next thing. So, do it well.  

Maybe this season is an inconvenience to your plans. The funny thing about our plans is that we rarely consult the LORD about them. Perhaps God has different (and better) plans for you.

Maybe this is a season of unanswered prayer or difficulty. Perhaps God intends for this to actually be a season that fertilizes the seed he has planted? Ask any farmer – the time of fertilizing is important. There is also a need in between harvesting and a new planting that the ground has to sit ‘fallow’ in order for rest and recovery. 

Let us not wish away the time we are in. Let us not discard the waiting in order to get to the next thing, or we will look back a see that we were not good stewards of the time we were given.

When my oldest daughter was around a year old, I used to think, “I can’t wait until she is older, and I don’t have to change diapers.” Or I would think, “it will be so much easier when she is older and can have grown up conversations with me.”

But now she will be 15 this year, and in just 3 years she will graduate high school and probably go to college. And all I can think about is: why did I wish so much time away in order to get to the next thing?

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What is God teaching you about yourself in this period of waiting? 

            What areas are you frustrated in, or wishing to move past quickly? What is God trying to cultivate (and possible root out of you) in your life? Perhaps he is showing you things that you are worshiping above him (called idols)? Perhaps there is sin that you are clinging to that God wants to allow to sit and wither during this fallow season? Not everything should continue, and the waiting period is showing what fruit can die on the vine. 

What is God teaching you about himself in this period of waiting?

            Do you believe that God is giving you life in abundance during the ‘not yet’? Are there thoughts and beliefs about God that need to be corrected? Perhaps this opportunity to “be still and know” that he is God is for the purpose of exalting Him among the nations – maybe God was too small in your life, and you need to set your eyes on him once more to put it all in the right perspective? 

If your life is lived for the glory of God, how is this time of waiting being lived for the glory of God? 

Let us experience the life abundant in the waiting, because God is in the waiting. God is at work, speaking and giving good things to his children. Let us not wish it away. Let us not be so busy to rush to the next thing that we miss the good that God has for us right now.