What are you waiting for?

Originally sent June 30, 2024

I have never been much for waiting. I scan for the quickest lane at the grocery store and cannot stand a doctor’s office waiting room. Waiting seems boring, unproductive, and lame. It’s sort of a universal truth; no one likes to wait. Our accelerated age has made impatience a virtue. So what do we make of all the places in scripture that tells us to wait?

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Lamentations 3:24-26

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Isaiah 30:18

So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.

These are just a few, but you get the idea. God says that there is something good about waiting. In the waiting we grow in our trust and dependence on God. In the waiting we learn to humble ourselves. Waiting reminds us that there are a whole bunch of things that are not ours to carry, fix, control, or change. Waiting means we look to, hope in, and trust God.

What are you waiting for? Is there something you’ve tried to change or fix through your own efforts, and yet still come up short?  Is there someone you have attempted to push and prod into a better place; to no avail? Where are you stuck and in spite of your best effort nothing has changed? What might it look like to wait?