Hurry up and wait!

By Joseph Tkach

 

Sometimes, it seems, waiting is the hardest thing for us to do. Once we believe we know what we need, and feel we are ready for it, most of us find prolonged waiting nearly unbearable. In our Western world we can get frustrated and impatient when we have to wait five minutes in line while sitting in an automobile listening to music and wearing permanent pressed clothes at a drive-through fast-food restaurant! Imagine how your great-grandmother would see that.

 

As Christians, waiting is further complicated by the fact that we trust in God, and we often struggle to understand why the things we deeply believe we need, and for which we have prayed time and again and done all we know to do, don’t come to us.

 

King Saul got anxious and worried while he was waiting for Samuel to show up to offer the sacrifice for battle (1 Samuel 13:8). The soldiers were getting restless and some were leaving, and in his frustration at the seemingly endless waiting, he finally offered the sacrifice himself. Naturally, that’s when Samuel finally showed up. The incident caused the end of Saul’s dynasty (vs. 13-14).

 

At one time or another, most of us probably have felt like Saul did. We trust God, but we can’t understand why he doesn’t step in and calm our stormy seas. We wait and wait, things seem to go from bad to worse, and finally, the waiting seems to become more than we can bear. I know our Pasadena property sale has felt like that at times, for me, for all of us in Pasadena, and certainly for all our congregations.

 

But God is faithful, and he promises to see us through everything we face in life. He has proven that time and time again. Sometimes, he suffers through it with us, and sometimes, more rarely it seems, he brings to an end what has seemed would never end. Either way, our faith calls on us to trust him—to trust that he will do what is right and good for us. Often, it is only in retrospect that we can see the strength that we gained through the long night of waiting and begin to sense that the painful experience may have been a blessing in disguise.

 

Still, it is no less miserable to endure while we are going through it, and we can empathize with the psalmist who wrote: "I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until you restore me?" (Psalm 6:3, New Living Translation). There is a reason the old King James English word for patience was "longsuffering"!

 

Luke tells us that the two disciples who were walking the road to Emmaus were downcast because it seemed to them that their waiting had been in vain and all was lost because Jesus was dead (Luke 24:17). Yet, at the very same time, the risen Lord in whom they had placed all their hopes was walking right beside them and giving them encouragement—only they didn’t realize it (vs. 15-16). Sometimes this is the case with us too. We often don’t recognize the ways God is with us, looking out for us, helping us, encouraging us—until later.

 

It was not until Jesus broke bread with them that "their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’ " (vs. 31-32).

 

When we trust in Christ, we don’t wait alone. He remains with us through our every dark night, giving us strength to endure and light to see that all is not lost. Jesus assures us that he will never leave us alone (Matthew 28:20).

 

I pray for you every day and thank God for the wonderful ministries of love that are springing up in our congregations around the world. Thank you for all you do in the name of Christ, and for your devotion to one another.

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