Waiting

Do you find waiting to be easy? We can wait in traffic, in a line, at a doctor’s office, for a movie to start.  Some people wait impatiently. They are usually the ones pacing, and or driving everyone else crazy desperately trying to make the waiting end. There are also those people who sit more quietly and distract themselves from the waiting. I think I fall into the second category. Several months ago, however, I had an experience in a hospital waiting room. My husband had gone through an elective surgical procedure and did really well. He was in recovery waiting to be assigned to a room. I consider myself to be one that has quite a bit of patience, and I had prepared for the situation. I brought snacks, a couple of books to read, and of course I had my phone to scroll through social media and play games. I also am one of those people that enjoy people watching, so I really thought I was set. Two to three hours in a waiting room is no big deal. However, because the hospital was crowded, there were issues with my husband being assigned a room. The 2 – 3 hours of waiting turned into 6 – 7 hours of waiting. As the hours ticked by, my patience turned into worry, anxiety, and frustration. Why is this taking so long? Is my husband receiving good care? Are my kids okay? Will I be home in time to make sure they get in bed at a decent hour? At this point no amount of snacks or distractions were going to fix it. I needed action and the waiting to come to an end. Of course, my husband did finally get assigned a room. I was able to see him get settled and drive the hour home. The kids had done great and were happy and content when I arrived home. 

No matter how we wait or how much patience we have to wait, there comes a time when waiting is just plain hard. Why is waiting hard? When we are waiting, we are usually on someone else’s timetable. Therefore, we don’t always know when the waiting will end. I think waiting on God is no different. Most of us like to be in control of our own situation and not have to be on someone else’s schedule of when things might occur. We would also like for God to tell us when and how He is going to move, so we can wait easier. But obviously God does not usually work that way. 

A good example of this is Abraham and Sarah. Abraham had this amazing promise from God. He would have a child. He would not only have a child but descendants that outnumbered the stars! The only problem was Abraham and Sarah did not have any children, and they were not getting any younger. Abraham and Sarah had a choice. Do they continue to trust God and cultivate the intimacy between the two of them to make a child, or do they abandon the promise? This was not a choice that could only be made once. It was a choice that had to be continually made. I am sure as the years continued on, it became more and more difficult. In fact, it became so difficult they finally took matters into their own hands. Sarah was now in her eighties and barren, so she offered her servant Hagar to Abraham. She reasoned that maybe the heir could come through her servant. So essentially she used her servant Hagar to end the waiting and make the promise happen. However as we see in Genesis 16, this only caused more problems with real consequences, and this was not what God had promised. 

However, the beautiful thing about this story is that even though Abraham and Sarah may have given up on God, God did not give up on Abraham and Sarah. Time passed and in Genesis 17 we see that God once again came to Abraham. Abraham was now 99 years old. God reaffirms His promise of a child and descendants that outnumber the stars to Abraham. He also reiterates to Abraham that Sarah was a part of this promise. So when Abraham was 100 years old, Isaac, the son of promise, was born to Abraham and Sarah!

I think when we are waiting on God, we have a choice to trust God or question God. It is easy as the waiting continues to question if God really said what we think He said and begin to look for ways to end the waiting. However we can also choose to lean into God and trust Him. Remember God is always for us not against us. He alone sees the big picture and understands what we need and when we need it. It is our privilege to partner with Him. Instead of looking for ways to make the waiting end, we can lean into God and develop an intimacy with Him that may not come about another way.

I want to encourage you that if there is an area of your life where you are waiting on God, continue to lean into Him. He wants relationship with you and gave everything He had to have that relationship with you. So run to Him and hear what He has to say. He loves us more than we can understand!