“I love to wait,” said no one, ever.
Most of us associate waiting with uselessness—waiting in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in the grocery
line to check out, waiting for a repairman, waiting for a teenage son or daughter to come home, waiting for your flight to board and take off.
Recently, I found myself waiting for results at both ends of the life spectrum. In October, I anxiously awaited the birth of my first grandchild. At the time, I had no idea that within two weeks, I’d be awaiting word of my sister’s passing from this life into eternity. Not only is waiting not fun, it can be downright nerve-wracking.
Lessons on Waiting
During this time, I was reading and studying Genesis and Exodus. Probably not a coincidence, considering both books record many situations where people were waiting.
- Abraham waited 25 years for God’s promise of a son to be fulfilled.
- Jacob waited seven years and one week for his beloved Rachel, but he waited a total of twenty years before returning to his homeland.
- Joseph waited eleven years as a slave and two years as a prisoner before the realization of his dreams. He waited at least another 8 years before seeing his brothers, and longer than that before being reunited with his father.
- The Israelites waited 400 years to return to the land God had promised would be theirs. They were enslaved for somewhere between 100 and 200+ years of that time of waiting.
- Moses waited 40 years before God called him to lead His people out of Egypt.
- And don’t forget the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before the Israelites were allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Do you get the idea God’s not in any hurry?
What we often fail to realize is that those times of waiting weren’t useless. God was at work, teaching Abraham that He is worthy of trust and faithful to His promises.
Jacob learned how it feels to be cheated out of something you desire, and he learned God’s faithfulness in all circumstances.
Joseph learned humility and compassion, characteristics he needed to administer a nation during a famine.
After growing up in a privileged environment, Moses underwent forty years of physical hardships and tending sheep to prepare him to lead the Israelites through the desert.
And Israel learned that God is faithful to His promises, even if it takes centuries. The more astute among them learned to trust God for His provision, and they learned God doesn’t mess around with idol worship.
What have I learned from waiting?
- That time doesn’t matter much to God (and therefore it shouldn’t matter much to me either).
- That everything happens according to His schedule, not mine.
- But He is there in the waiting and if I seek Him instead of being so focused on what I’m expecting to happen, I will likely develop some character quality that will come in handy for whatever plan He has for me.
Next Sunday begins the season of Advent for the Christian church. It’s a time to commemorate the expectant waiting for the promised Messiah. Forty-two generations came and went between the promise of a savior and the fulfillment of that promise. In Galatians, Paul calls it “the fulness of time,” the end of waiting when everything that needed to be prepared was ready.
While not pleasant, waiting is not useless time. In fact, it just might be the most productive time we ever spend.
