Waiting

I’m fairly laid-back, so being patient can be easy most of the time, but sometimes waiting is the pits.  We all cringe at the idea waiting in lines at Wal-Mart or waiting on new toys to be shipped to our house.  Teens wait for a driver’s license; girls wait for prince charming; students wait for graduation.

Lately I have been struggling with waiting on the Lord.  My wife and I have been waiting for God to show us what he wants us to do now that I am done with school for now.  The daily calendar always stays full with work, responsibilities, and hanging with friends, but there is always a desire to know where we will be planting our lives and serving God.

We can’t complain at all since we have a roof over our heads, family, friends, and jobs, but there is a desire in us for more.  We want to know that we are in the middle of the purpose for our lives.  We want to make a difference.

The Bible is full of reminders to “wait for the LORD” and to trust in Him and His timing, but it is easy to grow impatient.  In Psalm 69:3, David once prayed (and probably did on other occasions), “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.  My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”

Waiting can be a pretty horrible feeling.  As Christians we are told to wait on God.  We are reminded in the New Testament to wait for the second coming of Jesus, when He will take us to be with him for ever and make all wrongs right.

As I think about the darkness of waiting in my life, it makes me wonder what it was like for Jesus to wait. . . 

• Depending on your views of how old the earth is, Jesus had to wait a while before He came to live in the flesh as the baby in the manger.  What was it like to wait and watch as men and women, the pinnacle of His creation, turned to sin rather than their Creator?

• Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry of gathering disciples, preaching and doing miracles (Luke 3:23).  Was He ever like a hard-headed teenager that wanted to rush into life?

• Jesus made it clear that He knew that the purpose of His live on earth was to die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and to rise from the dead so that we can have eternal life (Mark 8:31).  How often did he think about the cross?  Was death and judgment always in His view as a man on death row staring at the calendar date marked X?

• As Jesus: was arrested, was beat, was whipped with the cat of nine tails, was mocked, was spit on, walked up to Golgotha, was raised up on the cross, gasped for breath, cried out in pain, suffered judgement in our place - did time seem to stand still as He waited for the victory of death?

• As Jesus waits in heaven, how does He feel when His children suffer and He can’t swoop them in his arms and take them to heaven?

• As Jesus waits in heaven, how does He feel when His children sit back and relax as the world around them dies, facing eternity without someone sharing the good news with them- that Jesus died on the cross so that they can be saved and follow Him as Lord?

• As Jesus waits in heaven, how does He feel when His children are focused on the many worries of life, rather than waiting for Him?

Trust in the LORD, and do good; 
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.  
Delight yourself in the LORD,  
and he will give you the desires of your heart. 
Commit your way to the LORD; 
trust in him, and he will act.

Psalm 37:3-5 // ESV