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Waiting. We should be experts at it.
From the day we’re born our training in waiting begins. Even those with parents who effervesce with eager enthusiasm, pandering to every potential whim, still have to wait. Food requires preparing, baths need filling, shopping unpacking, washing machines to cycle – every parent eventually learns some things simply can’t be hurried and sometimes baby just has to wait (if any of our new parents have not learnt this lesson yet – wait, you’ll see!).
School schedules another series of waiting training lessons for our lives. Parents wait for those fleeting moments of freedom when kids are whisked to school and children wait for the clock to click release from classes so they can return home to be waited upon! Waiting training seeps into other areas of our lives as we wait for public transport, other people, solicitors (get their own category!), decisions to be made, appointments, results to be announced, good news and bad news to be released, the telephone to ring, the concert to start, the sermon to end, holidays, birthdays – Christmas!
Waiting. We should be experts at it.
‘Time’ is often targeted as the culprit concerning this constant nuisance of waiting. We all know ‘time’ is sneaky. When we are having fun time ticks faster, when fun is in short supply seconds elongate. Time also seems to respond to certain key words: ‘deadline’ makes time crash forward totally disregarding tasks still yet to do, ‘a date’ turns time into a tease dangling each second just out of reach. If only time would bend to our will ‘waiting’ would be bearable.
Saving time is another way we try to avoid waiting. New devices are constantly being added to our lives to try and reduce the need to wait – microwaves and dishwashers, instant messaging and same day delivery, cash machines and 24 hour banking, fast food and pre-washed lettuce. However in the effort to tame time we can actually make waiting worse - knowing that it is possible to save time we grow more impatient with people who are clearly not trying hard enough! (Yes, this article is greatly inspired by the frustration of waiting for the solicitors to sort out the papers concerning buying the land next to the church – but they’ve had them nine months – its a contract not a baby we’re after!) This time frustration can also spill over to our view of God. Why doesn’t God step in quicker, intervene, meet a pressing need – if only God would hurry up! (Ever thought/prayed/said that?)
The Bible says something really clear and relevant on waiting. Whilst we are desiring to bend or make time, God, the One who can bend and did make time, waits. God waits for us. Waits for us to respond, to follow Jesus, to step out in obedience, to step out in faith, for prodigals to return, to put our hope in Him. Not a one off response which soon fades back into the time bending fantasies of ‘if only…’, but a response that comes to God and waits on Him.
In Isaiah 40:31 we read, “Those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
I reckon the key to waiting, is learning to wait for the right thing. Not for a solution but a Saviour. The Bible says, as we train ourselves to wait on God, then we are renewed, then perspectives change and strength is found. When we train ourselves to put God first, say “Your Kingdom come”, seek to apply what Jesus says above what we prefer – learn the unforced rhythm of God’s grace - then ‘waiting’ is transformed from a brick wall experience, into a gateway leading to the life that Jesus brings.
As we celebrate the arrival of Jesus, our Saviour and enter a new year, let’s commit to training ourselves to waiting on God, to placing our hope in God. Let’s become experts at waiting.
Isaiah 40:31 “Those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
What are you waiting for?
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