For all the years I've been a pastor, you would think faith would just ooze out of my pores, but in fact, that's not the case. In our Advent devotional, the week's theme has been "Hope." The author has repeatedly written about the 400 years between the close of the canonical Old Testament and the sudden appearance of John the Baptist with his heralding the immanent coming of the Messiah. 400 years without a word from God. 400 years of waiting and hoping for the promised Savior. Generations came and went, enveloped in divine silence, and yet there were a few like Anna and Simeon in Luke's account, who were still actively waiting and hoping.
It's that adverb "actively" that holds the key. Often people wait because they have no other real options. When that's the case, the waiting is frequently impatient, frustrating, disheartening. We sit, twiddling our thumbs, drumming our fingers on the table, pacing back and forth, but accomplishing little. There's the endless, draining sitting in the hospital waiting room anxiously wondering how the surgery is going. We've all had times where waiting wore us down.
But then there's the little child waiting for Christmas morning, filled with hope, expectation, anticipation. And there's the server who waits on tables, actively engaging the customer, attending to our desires, making sure everything is "just right." It is these latter two kinds of waiting that I believe are enjoined in Isaiah's great poetic insight where he says, "Those who wait upon 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." (Isa. 40:31)
It's hard to wait. 400 years of waiting is just about unbearable. I find that my impatience too often gets the best of me, and when after awhile my prayers go unanswered, or the situation seems impossible, my faith gets a bit shaky and my prayers go limp with discouragement. I believe the greatest obstacle to faith-filled prayer is unanswered prayer. The Scriptures are pretty clear about what to do about it, but it goes against the grain, requiring more effort than most of us have within us to give. That's why I am so grateful for those few people in my life whose faith is simply unfazed by waiting. They keep praying, confidently, joyously, faithfully. Marla is one of these kinds of pray-ers. As is pastor Roy. I've listened to them pray repeatedly for people, for healings, for miracles that continue to elude them. Yet they pray. And their prayers encourage me in mine.
Yes, I should be better at this than I am. I wish I could say that my prayer life is one continual upward movement to new heights of spiritual intimacy, joy, and faith. Sadly, it's still a struggle. But these people God has placed in my life remind me by their faithfulness that it's possible to live this way, so I am thankful; so very thankful for their gift to me, and I suspect, not to me only, but to the entire Church.
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