Rooted in Waiting
At the tail-end of February, just days before the world began to shut down, our church held its annual Women’s Weekend. In hindsight, it was the last “big” thing I attended, and it seems like a lifetime ago. Hundreds of women gathered together in worship, shared meals, shared stories, shared life. My friend Eva and I hosted a breakout session on a topic we’re all quite familiar with: waiting. In this season where we all continue to wait-- on normalcy, a plan, a light at the end of the tunnel, or even our next paycheck-- Eva and I thought it might be best to share what we discussed that weekend in this post. At the bottom of this post, you’ll also find a link to the handout we created — a waiting “choice board.” (Can you tell we’re both teachers?)
Picture something you hate waiting for. Now, consider something you don’t mind waiting for. Do you hate waiting in line at the grocery store, but don’t mind waiting on a table at a good restaurant? Does time stand still as you wait in traffic, and yet you love waiting on a highly anticipated movie release? Waiting is weird-- sometimes we hate it and sometimes we love it, rebranding it as anticipation.
There’s a pattern here. In most cases, the things we hate waiting for are unexpected inconveniences; things that are out of our control. And oftentimes, the things we don’t mind waiting for are the ones we know we can count on. We love to wait expectantly for something we’re certain will come. Stuck in traffic? The worst. On a 12-hour road trip? How fun! Our perspective determines how we wait.
There may be seasons of life where things move along at a pleasant clip, with very few hold-ups, uncertainties, or question marks. Perhaps your life was such before 2020 arrived. Did you have a steady, predictable routine that was turned upside down? Did your once-certain plans waiver or fold?
I used to think that when I got married and graduated college that I would arrive-- that the waiting would be over. Being a grown-up, having a secure job and being married seemed like concrete pillars, guaranteeing everything else would settle into place. In recent years, however, we’ve waited on answers about Marshall, waited on the right house in a new town, and waited for the next right step in my career. Currently, we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of another huge season of waiting as Wes looks for a job and I re-enter the school year.
These days, it seems we are all waiting on something. And you know what’s cool? We are not alone. We wait together. And collectively, as a human race, we’ve certainly waited before.
Let’s look at a Biblical example of waiting. Read Exodus 16, either in your Bible or via the link provided, then hop back over here.
Did you read it?
On the tails of their glorious escape from captivity, the Israelites found themselves in an anticlimactic holding pattern. As they awaited their next future home, God gave manna to sustain them. He asked them to wait on it each and every day. And what did the Israelites need to do while they waited? Be obedient.
As Eva and I prayed over this scripture and formulated our breakout session, we came to the conclusion that God asks the same of us while we wait: that we are obedient. And just as perspective determines how we wait, it can frame our obedience as well. There are three ways we might wait.
We can wait in anxiety.
Israelites could have been obedient out of fear. While a healthy fear (read: respect) of the Lord is Biblical, the character of God is that He wants us to trust Him and respect Him out of His great love for us, not the fear of screwing up each and every detail of life. When we are obedient out of fear, not love, we miss what God has for us while we wait.
We can wait in independence.
The Israelites could have responded in rebellion. (“Obedience is unnecessary-- I’ll make my own manna!”) If we’re not careful, it's easy for us to swing to the opposite side of the spectrum: self-reliance and a false sense of security. Who among us can guarantee with absolute certainty our safety during this difficult season of waiting? In any season? The answer is a difficult one. When we declare our independence and self-sufficiency, we miss out on the beauty of God’s provision in the midst of humility and obedience.
We can abide (continue, hold on, persist, dwell) with the Lord.
In this scenario, our obedience is rooted in trust and gratitude for who God is. Who He has proven to be, time and time again, in our own lives and in the lives of so many others. We can choose to trust His plan without knowing what’s around the next curve. We can be thankful for the manna He provides each day without fearing if tomorrow’s will arrive. We can pray through and make each decision, one at a time, as we navigate this pandemic. Who among us can know what lies ahead? All we have is the here and now, the next right step ahead of us.
So what do we do while we wait? What does abiding in obedience look like in our daily lives? Here are some practical ways to abide with the Lord in our current season of waiting.
Spend time reading the Bible.
God gave us his written Word. It is living and active, relative even-- no, especially- today in the midst of a global pandemic. The Bible is full of detailed accounts of real people with real problems who chose to abide when times were tough and the waiting was long.
Dedicate ourselves to our current responsibilities. For many of us, these responsibilities have changed dramatically in the last few months- and will continue to change and adapt at a moment’s notice. What is required of you in this season? Are you giving it your all? 2020 has forced us all to start from scratch and rebuild. As we start to return to a new normal, where is our focus?
Be present with the Lord.
For many of us, the excuse of not having enough time is no longer valid. While some of us are inundated with video conference calls, online classes, or homeschooling, I think many of us have also been met with the reality of slowness and silence. (If we’re willing.) If I’m not careful, I’ll spend all of my extra time on my phone or watching Netflix. Neither of those things are inherently bad, but neither one will allow me to hear from the Lord above the noise of what I choose to fill my time with. I will never accidentally live a life for Jesus. My best intentions are nothing without a little extra effort. As we rebuild and move forward, where do we prioritize our time with God? The Bible tells us that if we come close to God, He will come close to us (James 4:8). If you’ve never prayed a single honest prayer in your life, it’s not too late. If you’ve never read the Bible, been to church, or heard a thing about who God is, you’re not too far away. In fact, you could attend church this week online-- at basically any church around the world-- and no one would ever know! Curious about who God is? There’s no time like the present!
In a sermon a few months ago, the speaker mentioned the idea of walking with Jesus, not ahead of him. I can think of no better image as I consider how we move forward as people, as families, as a church; as towns, countries, or humanity as a whole. What is He doing? When will this all be over? When (or will) life return to normal? While we await the answers to each of today’s big questions, let us not lose sight of the Truths we already know. And let us not lose sight of one another as we wait.
Together.