Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
-Psalm 25:3-9
I can’t stand waiting.
I get impatient in long lines at the grocery store. Traffic infuriates me. I’ve been known to stand pensively in front of a microwave tapping my fingers on the counter because thirty seconds just seems like four days sometimes. I have a brand new laptop, it is by far the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. It isn’t fast enough though.
I’m a journalist. My days are deadline-driven. I’m not accustomed to waiting. You can imagine how hard it is for me when I’m facing challenges in life to wait for answers that don’t seem to come. When God reminds me that life moves on His time and not on mine, I don’t know how to handle it. Do I pray more? Read the Bible more? Twiddle my thumbs and watch TV until whatever is supposed to happen does?
Often, I find myself worrying. Worrying begets stress and stress begets weakness, illness and misery. Waiting is by far the worst feeling in the world.
Yet, over and over again in the Bible God commands waiting and patience. He says things like, “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still? How do you do that? Just sit still and know that someone else is driving the ship? Where are we going? Why? Do we have to? Are we there yet? How much longer?
When I was a kid, we used to pack into the car once or twice a year and make a 10 hour trek to Virginia to visit my grandmother. Grandma’s house was great. The town she lived in was a bit boring, but the house always smelled of home-cooking and I knew when I arrived I would be greeted with that smell and with the warmth of her house. But the drive often overshadowed the destination. I hated that drive. I would read until it made me dizzy, and listen to music until I got tired of music, and somehow that still left a balance of about five hours of sheer misery cooped up in a car that seemed to be shrinking with each mile.
Waiting means frustration. It is a slow march forward, in most cases uphill. I don’t think I know anyone who is OK with waiting. Most of my friends don’t get frustrated with microwaves like I do, but I’d venture to guess that on the big issues, most people don’t suffer waiting easily. It could be a medical diagnosis, a cure, an elusive job, a baby or a long-awaited check. Waiting is painful and it isn’t easy.
But God frequently positions us at different stages of life to wait. In the Old Testament we’re told to be still. In the New Testament, we’re told to abide and rest. The Israelites waited in slavery for 400 years and then again for 70 years in exile. The wait from Eden to the coming of the Messiah spanned thousands of years, and the wait for Christ’s return has continued for 2,000 years. Waiting is necessary, but the answer to why, isn’t really given.
Maybe it is to teach. Maybe it is to refine and build up. Maybe it isn’t for us at all, but to the people around you who watch and are inspired by how you handle the uncertainty. One thing’s for sure, whatever the reason for the wait, you will have to suffer through it without knowing the end result or the reason. You might find out once the matter is resolved, but there’s a chance you may never know the reason. The only comfort I can take from that, is that I’m in good company. The Bible does give us a bounty of others who found themselves in a position of waiting.