Waiting. We do it everyday. We wait for the coffee pot to finish filling. For the windshield to defrost. You spend an hour waiting for a table at your favorite restaurant and another 10 minutes in line for the bathroom. We wait at the doctor’s offices and post offices and in line at the grocery store. We wait for acceptance letters and graduations. We wait for the release of albums, books. movies, etc. I don’t even want to know how much time we wait on things to buffer on the internet.
And no one is ever excited about the waiting period. No one says, “I am so ready for this meal at this restaurant, but I’m more excited for the hour I’m going to sit and wait beforehand.” No one does that! Waiting is tedious. We get restless. We get weary.
The definition of wait that we are probably most familiar with is “to stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens.” We think of waiting as kind of a lazy period, where we scroll through social media while sitting in the dentist office chair or angrily stare at the computer screen at that stupid moving circle.
But that’s not the only definition of wait. To wait also means to “remain in readiness for a purpose; look forward to expectantly; to be ready and available.”
Just as in the routines of our everyday lives, there is a significant amount of waiting in Christianity. If you haven’t already figured it out, God doesn’t run on our time. We may be sitting here impatiently looking our watches saying, “God, come on. It’s time, let’s go,” but God’s saying, “You’re following the wrong person’s watch.”
We find ourselves in waiting periods more often than not. We’re waiting for a new job, for a relationship, for better financials, for healing, for success, for satisfaction and fulfillment, for something better. And here’s the thing, we can sit around and passively wait forever. Twiddling our thumbs, eyes staring at our phones, feet glued to the floor, and maybe something will happen. OR we could be active in our waiting. Instead of conforming to that first definition of waiting that our society chooses, we can choose the second one.
We can turn our waiting into AWAITING. We can anticipate, long, yearn, expect for the Lord to show up. We can still pause and rest, but rest in God. Linger in His presence; dig in to what He is providing for you, lean in to what He’s trying to tell you.
Many times God plants a seed and we just stand there and watch it, waiting for it to grow when what we should be doing is nurturing the seed. We need to be fertilizing the soil, establishing roots, drenching the seed in the only food and drink that will allow it to never hunger or thirst no matter how hot or rocky or stormy the conditions get. So when it’s time for the harvest, it won’t be a weak little seedling barely hanging on, but a strong and vibrant fruit ready for what lies ahead.
You can choose to wait passively. You can stand and watch the seed with your hand in your pockets. Or you can lift your hands to the sky and say, “Lord, I’m anticipating you.” Pick up your Bible, bow your head or your knees, grab the hand of a friend or a loved one or a mentor, and be ready. Because when you expect for the Lord, He’s going to show up big.
I don’t know about you, but I’m done passively waiting. I’m awaiting Jesus. I’m lingering in His presence and I’m anticipating everything He has in store. I no longer have a dreaded waiting period, but an anticipatory resting period. And man is God good.
“I wait for the Lord, my WHOLE BEING waits, and in His word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.” (emphasis mine).
-Psalm 130:5-6-
