I hate to wait. Just ask my wife – she can affirm that for me, “on time” is late, and early is “on time.” When we have a fifteen minute drive to get somewhere, I MUST leave at least twenty minutes before we’re supposed to arrive. When I’m renting a RedBox DVD, I whip out my smartphone and find out what movies are in the kiosk before we get up there, so that I’m not one of “those people,” taking ten minutes to browse through the same DVDs over and over, making other people wait while I make up my mind. (No offense if you’re one of those belated kiosk browsers!)
We live in a society that doesn’t slow down. We want instant gratification. We have fast food. Curb-side pick up. Instant oatmeal. Hot’n’Ready Little Ceasar’s pizzas. We have drive-thru oil changes and drive-thru flu shots. Why save up for that “must-have” item when you can charge it? At hospitals, we absolutely loathe the rooms designed for waiting. We even have “ringbacks” on our cellphones, so that – God forbid – if you have to wait to speak to someone you’ve just called, you can at least be entertained. Some of this is natural. Deep down, we understand that time is our most precious commodity. Each day we work, trading our precious hours for dollars. Our lives are so busy, we don’t want to spend ten minutes waiting for a pizza, much less a half hour over the stove to heat up dinner. Waiting seems to squander the little time we have left at the end of every day.
Waiting is a practiced art, closely intertwined with another word that makes our skin crawl – patience. Quality doesn’t come out of a vending machine. Ever taste the difference between instant coffee and freshly ground arabica coffee beans in a French press? Let things simmer slowly, and you can unleash the fullness of flavor within.
The hardest thing of all is to wait on God. Maybe you’re in the midst of a storm, and you just want it to end. Maybe God has given you dreams and visions, and you’ve met disappointment after disappointment in the pursuit of those dreams and visions. And yet, God commands us to wait. Be strong. Take heart. Wait for the Lord. Wait. What God understands, and we must learn, is that GOOD things take time.
Just as with cooking, “waiting” isn’t a passive activity. It’s full of expectation. Anticipation. It’s a season of preparation for what lies ahead. Whatever it is that you’re waiting for, put the time to good use. Pray with your spouse. Together, you’re stronger than you are individually. Ask God what he wants you to be doing in preparation through this season of waiting. Resist the urge to stagger through life, lurching hurriedly from moment to moment. Practice waiting on God, and expect the good things he has in store for you and your family.
But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
~ Cameron
