“Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14.
Whoa, God. Surely you must be mistaken! You meant full steam ahead, right? Be strong, take heart, and go for it- (NLDT- New Living Diana Translation). It’s just a little revision, God. How do you like it? Better?
No no no. I can just picture God face-palming and shaking his head. Wait.
Did you catch that? Wait.
Just in case you missed it the first five times…
Wait.
It’s the glue that holds this verse together. It’s so important, David put it at the beginning and the end. It’s the introduction and the conclusion. It’s the thesis and the summary. It’s the theme and the plot.
Wait.
I like to believe I have pretty good timing- I mean, not when it comes to dodging flying objects, or deciding when to brake so I don’t result in giving my carload whiplash, and I guess I am not the greatest at deciphering the length of lines so I often wind up in the longest… Otherwise, my timing is quite on point, for tasks shorter than thirty minutes, that is. Anything longer comes scarily close to waiting for completion, and I end up fizzling out of my passion for the job and quitting.
One of my friends a couple weeks ago looked at me and said, “Diana, I can see you as the type of person that would pick up the instructions and only read half of them.” Of course I defended myself. That was absurd! I read a fourth and skim the rest. But seriously, he was right. I barely have the patience to find the instructions, let alone read them. And if it’s a full manual, you better believe that thing isn’t coming out unless something is on fire. This is funny, because my dad likes to read the instructions word for word so he gets things right the first time, so you can only imagine what getting a new game looks like in my house.
All this boils down to is the fact that I am really good at finding what I want to see and disregarding everything else. My patience only goes towards things I can categorize as applicable to myself. And I don’t just do this with instruction manuals. I do it with books, movies, tasks, and yes, even the Bible.
When I first read that verse last year, I thought to myself, “Hey, I’m pretty good at being strong, and I have a lot of heart, so two out of three isn’t bad!” Since then, God has been teaching me that my inability to effectively wait hinders my ability to be strong and take heart. When I use the word effectively I mean it in the context of waiting for something beyond my control, like waiting for God to respond or to act in the manner that I have been praying for. In this case, there will always be a waiting period, but it’s how I use that time that determines whether I am waiting effectively- whether I am truly waiting.
During periods of waiting when I am simply sitting on my hands and complaining that I am not getting what I want, I am burning the time I could be using to become strengthened in the Word, and take heart in my Father’s love. When I don’t use these periods to build my strength and flourish in hope, I become empty, downtrodden, and fruitless in my search for meaning. I question God, asking Him, “Why?”
Why God? Why do I have to wait? What good does this bring? How much more effective could I be if I did instead of waited?
I imagine His response to be something along these lines-
How can you begin to wonder how effective you would be for the Kingdom of God without the tools you need to be effective? Because when you wait by building your strength and gaining your heart from Me, you can serve in the strength and love in the wisdom you learned when I call you to do.
In this transition period between graduation and the World Race, I have become really antsy. Without a “next task” to accomplish, I have felt like I have lost my purpose. But God has not given me this time to feel empty and meaningless. He has created this space for me to wait so that I may grow in my strength and knowledge of the gospel, and come to a deeper understanding of the hope that it brings, so that I may take heart in faith when I meet the struggles that are sure to come in the next year.
I know the days leading up to August are not going to be easy, and I know this is something I may wrestle with for the rest of the summer (and probably the rest of my life), but God has laid this task before me- the task of learning how to wait effectively. And I am ready to take on the challenge. Prayers that I would continue to learn how to wait for the Lord, build my strength, and take heart would be greatly appreciated!
In the meantime, please enjoy this song that I have probably listened to at least three times a day. If I was a superhero at this moment, I would want this song to play in the background while I flew onto the scene:
