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How can waiting be a gift? 

Most of us are frustrated by it and think it just gets in the way of everything we want to do or want to receive. Few of us would say we are good at it and perhaps that is why we are perpetually faced with the opportunity to practice it. A study of history and scripture teaches us it has been common to humankind since the beginning of time. 

We wait for things we earnestly desire. We wait for things that concern us and for which we want answers. We wait for acknowledgement. We wait for provision and for healing. We wait for love and wait through loss. We wait for some of the most meaningful things in our lives and endure waiting for the mundane everyday things of our days like traffic lights, trains, flights, our cup of espresso, and more.

We wait for events like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, Christmas, vacations, births, the end of a school year, retirement, and a long list of holidays no matter where we live in the world. We like to celebrate in the midst of ordinary days of waiting. Celebrations give us something to hope for as they usually involve things and people that mean a great deal to us.

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If we’re honest we especially have trouble waiting on God. That’s a common trait through the ages. Abraham and Sarah were promised a child by God but as time went on and age brought wrinkles and stooped shoulders to them, Sarah got tired of waiting and gave her handmaiden to her husband to have an heir and we all know how that worked out. We have been living with her choice to the present day because God did fulfill his promise of an heir by Sarah and each heir ultimately developed enmity with one another.

“It’s easy to get impatient, to lose hope. We don’t like to wait. We want God to work pronto, in the way we expect. But the Spirit of the Living God works through stages, carefully, and purposefully bringing about new life over time. When we begin to recognize that provision and grace and healing often come in stages, our hope will expand.” Margaret Feinberg

The Bible tells more than a few stories of people who couldn’t wait.

King Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to wait for him to arrive to give the offering he had said was to be done. Saul got tired of waiting and offered it anyway and despite his tall handsome good looks he lost his crown to a young shepherd boy named David.

What can be hard to hang onto is that waiting always has a purpose even though we may not see it. Waiting for a delayed flight can mean getting extra steps in by walking the concourses or avoiding a plane with poor maintenance records. Waiting for traffic can give you a chance to take some deep breaths and realize the delay might keep you from an accident you might experience if you were going at the rate you wanted to. But there can be even more significant reasons for waiting.

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Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had a special relationship with Jesus when He walked the earth. The friendship jumps out on the pages of scripture. When Lazarus becomes very ill, his sisters send for Jesus believing He can heal their brother. Their surprise and disappointment are understandable when He delays coming for 3 days. By then Lazarus is dead. How could that have any good purpose? But it did.

When Jesus arrives He learns Lazarus has already been buried and it would seem it’s too late as the mourners gather around Mary and Martha. But there was a larger purpose they would discover. Jesus goes to the tomb followed by the mourners and calls for Lazarus and miraculously he walks out to the entrance of the tomb wrapped in grave clothes. God performed a miracle that spoke more loudly than if Jesus had been there pronto and healed Lazarus before he died.

We will have waiting be a part of our lives as long as we live on this earth. Often we have no control over when it happens and we don’t always know why. What is true is that we have a choice about how we respond. Will we complain, blow up in anger, try to race ahead and add to the issue we think we already have or will we trust God has a purpose for us in the waiting even if it is simply to learn to trust Him a bit more with our times and seasons?

“Remember this: Just because you don’t see something happening doesn’t mean the Spirit isn’t working in the waiting.” Margaret Feinberg

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