Waiting

June 10, 2020

My reading of the Psalms today included 40:1–“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry,” and 130:6—“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.”

I hate waiting. I will leave a purchase or go to a different restaurant rather than wait in line. When I was officiating at weddings, I would tell the wedding party at the rehearsal that when the appointed hour came, we would begin the service. Anyone who arrived after the hour was late and would be on their own for seating, wedding party included. I hate waiting.

I’m not alone in this. We Americans are always in a hurry. We have our fast-food restaurants, microwave ovens. Thankfully, we have pretty much gotten over our love affair with instant coffee. In our TV shows, cops and detectives solve the crime in under an hour, and thanks to the internet, we can find the answers to the most arcane questions in seconds.

Unfortunately, the most important things in life aren’t instant. A musician practices for years to become proficient, the athlete works out with a regimen the rest of us are unwilling or unable to endure. Character takes years to build, and often requires us to simply wait. We chafe at that. We want to be doing something, making progress, seeing results, while God patiently murmurs, “Wait.” These past three months we’ve been waiting, and I confess I’ve not done too well at it. And all the while I’m champing at the bit, God is trying to get my attention by taking away all the distractions and making me wait. I’m like the little child jumping up and down in the pew whose mother told him he had to sit down in church. He finally complied, but disgustedly told her, “I’m standing up on the inside!”

The Psalmist says, “I waited PATIENTLY...” I have trouble waiting impatiently. But it was only through that patient waiting that God inclined his ear and heard the man’s cry. In 130, he says, “my soul waits.” This wasn’t a folding his arms, tapping his foot kind of waiting. In his soul, his innermost being, he was waiting and hoping. It is a very difficult discipline, especially when we resist learning it. I’ve been in remedial waiting classes many a time. 

Isaiah waxes poetic when he says, “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (40:31) I wonder how much of my spiritual weakness and weariness is the result of my impatience.

Waiting is not passive. It is deeply active, but completely non-manipulative. Too often, my busy-ness is a cover for trying to coerce God into doing what I think he should do. We don’t want to admit that we think, “If I work harder, God owes me,” but that’s often what goes on beneath the surface, and it’s why we feel betrayed when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we imagine he should. God will not tolerate our attempts at coercion. 

When the Bible tells us to wait, it is very specific: “Wait on the LORD.” We aren’t waiting for fate, aren’t waiting in fear for what may come. We wait on the LORD, not as if we were waiting in the dentist’s office for a dreaded root canal, or for the test results from the doctor. We wait in hopeful anticipation, like a child eagerly and excitedly waiting for Christmas. And we wait purposefully, like the waiter who attends to our every whim at the restaurant, not paying attention to her sore feet, but to the needs and wants of the one she serves. That is how we wait on the LORD. 

But it is still waiting, not yet realizing the fulfillment of the dream. I’m trying...I really am, but I’m not too good at it yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that God will keep me waiting till I can do it patiently. I just wish he would hurry up.