So much of life is waiting. It’s easy to allow our minds to race towards an ‘out’, but it’s in the wait, in the stillness that we find our faithful Lord.
I’ve kept a quote before me for years, decades now, I guess. It goes with me on my desk from location to location. Somehow these words ground me during the in-between times, the liminal spaces. The words were penned by the twentieth-century poet T. S. Elliot, but lest you think me a poetry buff, be informed that I found them quoted elsewhere, lifted from one of his works:
I said to my soul, be still and wait…
So the darkness will be the light,
And the stillness the dancing.
Such winsome words; truth rings out through their beauty. Scripture repeatedly bears out the value and reward of waiting, even in darkness and confusion…
To Wait Is Life
I’m trying to remember a time when waiting was ever my strength, my forte…
Nope, the memory isn’t coming. Yet, as I gaze over my lifespan, so very much has involved this very thing that most of us cringe at, wrestle with, and squirm under – waiting. Whether it’s waiting in the carpool line, waiting at the ATM, or waiting for the Amazon order, we don’t like to wait in this instant society.
If we find ourselves caught in a line, if you’re like me, our minds begin calculating similar to a military general. We search for ways to circumvent the system in order to expedite our exit. We’ve got things to do, deadlines to meet, people to have coffee dates with – WORK WITH ME, WORLD!
Consenting Where We Are
And don’t even mention waiting on God! He definitely has NOT entered the 21st Century of the Western world! Isn’t there a newer version of the Bible that has changed Psalm 37:5 from “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him,” to something like, “Get moving with God and He’ll get moving for you!”?
Right. I haven’t seen it, either. It’s just as well because I think we’d miss out on verse 9 if we rewrote verse 5…
For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
Psalm 37:9, NKJV
Generally, as long as life hums along smoothly, waiting quietly before the Lord seldom comes to the forefront of our minds or hearts. Waiting, you see, “is consenting to be where we really are,” as a monk from the Abbey of Gethsemane once said.
People recoil from it because they don’t want to be present to themselves. Such waiting causes a deep existential loneliness to surface, a feeling of being disconnected from oneself and God. At the depths there is fear, fear of the dark chaos within themselves.
Sue Monk Kidd, The Heart That Waits
Crisis
Unless a level of crisis disrupts our carefully choreographed days, the daily or weekly Bible Study usually suffices. Which may be why God orchestrates or allows, (however you choose to see it), an occasional crisis.
My most recent ‘crisis’ has been moving to another state. Being closer to grandchildren has been life-giving. Leaving close friends, our oldest son and his wife, and the familiarity of home have been more of a challenge. Believing I would hit the ground running, making friends, immediately involved in ministry, was a mind-trap I should have been prepared for. But, somehow wasn’t. I’m a master at setting myself up for the enemy’s lies of unrealistic expectations.
So, this is key; I need to be very careful and keenly aware of what is pulling my heart to rush away from the stillness. Here is the point where I can continue to make the situation all about me, have a pity party, call some friends to join me, (for prayer bandaids or commiseration), and not learn one thing from this period between death and resurrection. The other alternative is to sit before the Lord and ask Him, with the Psalmist, to:
Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Psalm 25:4-5, NKJV
How Long?
Am I willing to wait all day long (or a month or a year?) for the Lord to teach me His truth about this time in my life? Throughout the Psalms, David asked God to teach him His ways and to lead him on the right path, but there is never an indication that David believes the process will be instant. One of my favorite Psalms bears this out.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14, NKJV
David believed in the goodness of the Lord. He didn’t lose heart – although he could have – because he was waiting in faith. His was a faith that had seen God deliver him over and over again. He anticipated God delivering, again.
How long are we willing to wait for the Lord to deliver us? Like David, we shouldn't lose heart, but have faith in God to reveal His truth. Click To Tweet
First Light
If you’ve ever sat through the night rocking a sick child…or if you suffer from insomnia, you know what it means to watch for the first light of morning slicing through the clouds. Sometimes, waiting on the Lord is like that.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning – yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
Psalm 130:5-6, NKJV
This much I know, waiting is difficult, but the loving-kindness of the Lord never ceases. He knows my weaknesses. He meets me where I am.
The song “Here Again” from Elevation Worship has bolstered my spirit as I have been preparing this devotional, mainly because this is a place I have to return with God repeatedly. He meets me here again…and that is cause for dancing.
