For When You're Waiting

Go after it.

Make it happen.

Get to it.

Just do it.

Hustle.

You can do anything you set your mind to.

Words we've heard all of our lives, words that have shaped our approach to get to where we want to be. If we just put forth enough effort carried by enough passion, what we want will come.

Obviously, this logic is problematic for any person on many levels, but none so much as for a follower of Christ who wants to truly follow Him. As in, let go of trying to control the outcomes because it is the Leader, not the follower, who determines what is made of our lives when we live in obedience.

Does this mean we should just live in lackadaisical fashion, without putting forth any effort and just letting whatever happens happen? As Paul would say, may it never be! Of course there is a mandate for time to push and sow and labor and train and take that step into the Jordan at the time of flood. But what if, after all of that labor and effort and stepping in faith, God leads us into a time of waiting, a time of silence, a time without seeing results, and time where we don’t get our way? Can we follow Him there? At the cost of our pride, our success, of what others perceive us to be, of what we perceive ourselves to be?

I have listened to stories from a number of people in recent months who are saying, “I feel like God is asking me to be patient, to wait, and that I can’t have what I want right now...or maybe ever and I am just not sure what to do.” And I am one of those people. I find myself in the midst of community of believers who are just all kinds of uncomfortable with being in the waiting and are, all-together, learning to love and see God and one another during this time.

In light of all of these stories of waiting -

Waiting on a building

Waiting on a miracle

Waiting on a job

Waiting on a baby

Waiting on a marriage to heal

Waiting for remission

Waiting for “the one”

Waiting for a good night’s sleep again -

God is reassuring me that this is right where He wants us to be. Right where we need to be.

As the year began, I, like everyone else, was contemplating what my “Word for the Year” should be. I was coming up empty on all sides. Finally it dawned on me to ask God what He wanted for me for the year (how novel, I know) and as I revisited a familiar place in Psalms, His intent for me was clear. Midway through an often misused passage was one word: wait.

Psalm 37:3-7a (NASB)

Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

We all want for God to give us the desires of our heart, but few of us, if any, want to wait. But I also think this passage directs us in what to do with the waiting. Let’s look at the commands:

Trust in the promises, His presence, His perfection, His love, His mindfulness of you.

Do good for your spouse, your children, your neighbor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan.

Dwell, stick around, notice things, have conversations, don’t hurry.

Cultivate faithfulness, make being faithful your job as you stay in the Word, as you stay in prayer, as you intermediate for others, as you see God work around you.

Delight in the Lord when you seek out His beauty in the ordinary and extraordinary, the soap bubbles and the sunsets.

Commit our way, the way we go, set our path directed toward the Lord and take intentional steps toward Him, doing the next right thing and not worrying about fifteen steps down the road.

Trust that He is good, that His lovingkindness never ceases, that His compassions never fail, that He is faithful, just, merciful, and gracious.

Rest your body, your worried mind, rest your resentment, your anger, your frustration, your grudge. Let it rest.

and Wait. Let the Lord do His work.

And what is the Lord’s work? He tells us here what He will do.

He will give you the desires of your heart. Maybe we misread this as “God will make all your wishes come true” when maybe it’s more “As you delight in Him and get to know Him more, your heart’s desires will mirror the heart of God”.

He will do it. Really, He will.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. He will bring it about at the exact right time.

Let’s not waste the waiting.