I Hate to Wait
I am done! I am so tired of waiting for this pandemic to end! For all these restrictions to be lifted! For the vaccines to arrive! For the sick to recover! For businesses and churches and theaters and arenas to reopen! For the hostility created by our divisions to stop! For life to start again. Those who wait --- who wait on the Lord --- will renew their strength. They will soar to the heights on wings like eagles, lifted by the winds that are stirred by the storm. They will run, and keep on running, and not wear out. They will walk and never give up. [Isaiah 40]
We are all tired of waiting, but waiting on the Lord is a different mindset and posture and game plan altogether. It is a leaning into hope, a steady grip with confident expectation, a joyful anticipation, an intense longing for the future God promises and is preparing. All powered by our history (biblical, communal and personal) with Him. It is an active waiting --- a radical refocusing and reorienting of our lives, a relinquishing of false hopes and a daring embrace of new priorities. It is a deep trust, a willingness to put our full weight down on the Word of God. It is a recognition of God already at work according to a redemptive purpose. It is a call to those discerning this purpose to join Him now --- even when we do not fully comprehend.
It is waiting like Noah waited for God to bring justice to bear on a world where the treachery had become so egregious "that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." [Genesis 6:5]
It is waiting like Abraham and Sarah did in their old age for the children that God foretold they would have --- and the nation that would be born. [Genesis 12, 15, 21, 22]
It is waiting like Jacob and Rachel who fell in love but were prevented from marrying year after year until Jacob was released from his seemingly endless obligations. [Genesis 29]
It is waiting restlessly yet faithfully like Job while life fell apart all around him, as he lost everything, including his health --- as he waited for God to meet him and explain Himself. [Job 1, 3, 27-31, 38-42]
It is waiting like Joseph who was imprisoned though innocent for his release and the fulfillment of his dream. [Genesis 39-41]
It is waiting like Israel enslaved in Egypt for generations until the appointment of Moses and their exodus to the promised land. [Exodus 3-15]
It is waiting like Israel in exile in Babylon for years until the improbable return led by Nehemiah and Ezra. [Nehemiah 1-9, Psalm 137]
It is waiting like the prophets who were in agony over the condition of their nation and the lack of apparent prospects for recovery --- holding on, barely, to the covenant promise and hope for a miraculous intervention. [Ezekiel 12, Amos 4-9, Habakkuk 1-3]
It was waiting like a teenager named Mary who was enduring the brutal Roman occupation of her country even as she looked forward to the coming of the promised Messiah who would save her people. Then an angel brought her the news that she would give birth to this Messiah. "You are highly favored!" she was told, but Mary realized that a stigma would attach to her as an unwed mother. She would have to wait for vindication. [Luke 1, 2]
Mary would stand in front of a cruel cross one awful day, time suspended, as her son died a horrible, painful death --- the sacrifice that would fulfill his mission. The burden of waiting and watching was unbearable. [John 19] But Mary would be blessed to gather with the other disciples after the resurrection of her son and pray while waiting for the outpouring of the dynamic Holy Spirit --- and the unleashing of the Gospel witness which would eventually encircle the globe. [Acts 1]
So much waiting, and wondering in this world. We grow impatient, we get anxious and fearful, we feel the urgent need to take back control ... but we can't. We hear the swelling chorus on the commercial: "We want it all, we want it all, we want it all! And we want it now!" Waiting is not natural for us, not easy, not enjoyable! Not even possible, we may decide. Waiting on the Lord is the essential spiritual discipline for this season. It is a defiant strategy that instills a desperately needed resilience. To embrace this gift we read the last verses of the Bible: The Spirit says, "Come! Let the one who is thirsty come! Let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life!" Jesus testifies to all these things and says, "Yes, I am coming --- I am coming soon!" Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. [Revelation 22]
Jesus, are you coming soon?!?! "Soon" meaning?? We will wait. And while we are waiting we will be soaring, running, walking --- devoted, determined and learning to love like you, to serve like you, to live every day for you. Amen.
Pastor Doug Stevens (Pastor at Large), Austin TX Author: Christ Incognito (The Renewal Project, 2020 on Amazon), Called to Care (Zondervan/Youth Specialties, 1985) Speaker, and Blogger Connect on Facebook (Doug Stevens), Email: dapperdts@gmail.com