Waiting is not something our culture does very well. I noticed this one day a while back while waiting for a train on my way back from PCM. There was an announcement played over the loud speaker about how the trains were going to be running late for alittle while and then the one that was next would be express. She began to yell and scream profanities at the PA system, almost like it controlled the outcome of her life. She got so mad, simply because she had to wait another 5 minutes. What I see more so for me is in restaurants, seeing that I work in one. People are so impatient (btw don't be a jerk at a restaurant, simply tell us that you're going to see a movie, or you have to catch a train, dont say hurry up all the time cause most of us won't). I had a table two weekends ago that was very impatient, we have time limits for getting drinks on the tables, for greeting, for everything and it wasn't fast enough for them. They complained that they waited for 10 minutes for drinks, that they didn't get their food for an hour, that they were in a hurry and weren't getting good enough service. It angered me, a table of 12 people complaining that drinks took too long, when they had to put in two seperate orders because they all decided they wanted something different, and then to say their food took an hour, when they were in and out of the restaurant in under 65 minutes. Naturally they got most of their bill taken care of, but to make things worse they stiffed me on the tip! All because of impatience, and perhaps a tinge of greed in knowing how to work the system.
Impatience. It fuels car accidents, road rage, horrible service and hostile words. People as a whole, hate waiting. I'm guilty of this too, I hate waiting in lines that shouldn't be that long, and in traffic! But it's a part of life, and a part that can sometimes be good for us, it teaches us to slow down and realize the world doesn't revolve around us. But more so, with patience and waiting for me is the topic of waiting on the LORD. That's something we as Christians are horrible at. We always want it now, and want it our way. We'll like Sarah and Abraham. They waited on God to give them a child and it didn't come in their time so they did it themselves and created Ishmael. God was furious with this, but still even in their unfaithfulness they were given a child exactly how the LORD said they would be. Had they waited a whole slew of problems would not have came up.
We do that today too, we don't wait so we're like Abraham and we force it. I forced a relationship in my past, forced it to start before it was ready to, because I felt I was ready. I was wrong, and because of that I'm not in that relationship anylonger , I forced it, I made it happen and it was the wrong way. Had I waited on the LORD the first time around things may be different now, but here I am sitting waiting again. This time, I'm getting comfortable. Not too comfortable, but enough to the point where I'm okay with waiting on the LORDS time for this. It's not my time, that's for sure, but I've proved already that my time is often the Wrong time.
Waiting has its benefits though too, Isaiah says that those who wait on the LORD will rise up on wings like eagles. Waiting can help us to rise. That's not something we typically relate with one another, especially in our culture where we're taught that you have to make it happen or it won't. That's not at all what Scripture says. Scripture Says Wait! Figure out the Will of God and wait on his timing. If you can't figure out his Will at that moment, you're waiting has just begun. Wait.
The next hardest thing about this process is not becoming complacent. Don't get so involved in the waiting that when the time comes to jump, to step forward, to fall back, that you don't because you're too secure in you're waiting. When the time comes Jump, go forward, do what God has revealed to you to do. But don't do it before it's time.
Wait.
It's hard but we can do it. Jesus had to wait to be crucified it didn't just happen, we have to wait to enter into God's glory, we all have to wait on the Lord at some point of our lives. I'm waiting right now. Anxiously awaiting the end of this trial and the end of this process, yet welcoming the waiting none the less. Take the time to grow closer to God, seek His will, seek His face, and dwell in Him for that time especially.
Wait, then when the time is just right, when God reveals it to you, don't hesitate to Jump.
Wait with me?
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