Waiting

Driving down the road the other day I ran into a bit of traffic. Now I think its fair to say that nobody enjoys traffic. There are few things worse than just sitting in traffic waiting to get to your exit or through the traffic light. It feels like we're not getting anything done in the process, we are simply stopped with nothing to do. So here I am, nearly back at my house and I get stuck at a traffic light with a line of cars so far back that I can't even see the traffic light. Fortunately, I know the area moderately well and so I make a quick left turn and through the community I go. I take all the right side streets and stop at all the stop signs along the way and a few minutes later I arrive at my destination. The interesting thing is that in the amount of time it took me to go through the community, it probably would have taken me less time to simply wait at the traffic light. So why did it feel so much better to drive through the community than to wait at the traffic light? The answer is simple because I wasn't waiting. Waiting is something that we have grown to find as an annoyance, especially in American culture where instant gratification is king.

God has something to say about waiting though. He says those who wait upon the Lord will inherit the Earth (Psalm 37:9). He also says that if we wait upon Him that he will strengthen our heart (Psalm 27:14). We are called to wait upon the Lord, but what does that mean in our own lives? What does it look like to wait upon the Lord?

Recently, I have been struggling to find a full-time position in camping ministry. I have been doing it for a number of years now and have unfortunately been unable to come up with anything other than seasonal work. It can be frustrating and discouraging at times, but the one thing that gets me through it is God pushing me on to follow Him. I'm currently in a season of my life where I'm very unsure of my next step and so I've been trying to fill in the next step anyway I possibly can. It feels very much like I am stuck in traffic, despite having urgent things to do. I want to rush God's plan for my life and yet God wants me to wait and continues to say not yet.

Have you ever thought about why God wants us to wait? The obvious answer here is so that we will appreciate it more when we finally get it. We see this example all the time with children who are told that they have to wait and save up money to buy something and when they finally do, they cling to that as their most prized possession. We also see however another answer to this question. God wants us to wait, because we don't always know the true desires of our heart. How many times have you seen something in the mall and decided to wait to buy it only to find later that you didn't want it anyway? Or how many times have you bought something only to find that a week later you are no longer using it and it begins to collect dust till your next yard sale? Waiting is a gift from God. Sure it doesn't feel like it, but it is. He wants us to rely on Him, to wait on Him, to confidently go in the direction that he wants us to go. If that means waiting in traffic along the way then we wait. There is hope though. No matter how bad the traffic is, it always clears up.