How Well Do you Wait?

Waiting.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick . . .

Is it time already?

Sometimes, I feel like waiting is almost physically painful. We don’t like to wait—on or for—most anything these days. Isn’t it silly how frustrated we can get at a slow internet speed or how long it takes for a red light to turn green? I’m the worst when it comes to driving. If someone is going the speed limit—or anywhere under it—I can just about lose my mind. People, really? I’ve got places to be!

Waiting is a frequent acquaintance in all of our lives. “Big” waits like waiting on a doctor’s report, waiting for the call about that new opportunity, or waiting for that answer from God can sometimes feel like an eternity. “Little” waits can almost drive us bonkers. But what about those seasons of waiting—especially when it is carried out for months, maybe even years?

What do we make of those seasons?

Most often our human nature begins to feel forgotten, neglected, even forsaken by God. We hear good things like, “His delay is not His denial,” but sometimes that doesn’t bring much comfort to our deeper pain. I’ve been in those moments, those days where I’ve cried out to God, asking Him what I’m doing wrong. Is this waiting punishment? Does this waiting mean a definite no? It’s easy to just lose heart altogether.

Looking through our most treasured possession, God’s Word, it’s overwhelming to see how many of the history makers who went before us experienced long periods of waiting in their lives. Waiting on the dream, the promise, the inheritance, the victory, what they were born and called to do.

But this one thing always resounds true: He who called those history makers—He who planted that dream within them—was faithful.

I recently came across the song “Take Courage,” by Kristene DiMarco, where the chorus resounds, “Take courage my heart, stay steadfast my soul. He’s in the waiting. He’s in the waiting. Hold on to your hope, as your triumph unfolds. He’s never failing. He’s never failing.” It took my breath away while my heart just sobbed in abandoned surrender.

He is in the waiting.

Not outside. Not distant or far off. He’s not vacated His place on the throne or forgotten what He promised to do. He’s not busy with something or someone more important. He’s not waiting for me to finally get something right or pray the right prayer. He’s right there—in the very smack dab middle of my waiting.

To Him, waiting is a beautiful space.

Psalms 139:15 (NLT) reads, “You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.”

He could’ve chosen to speak us into existence with one word as He did with the stars, but instead He chose to form us slowly over time. He was fully present and fully active in our very first season of waiting. Tucked away in that safe place we were afforded the beauty and delicacy of growing and transforming in the wait. What a beautiful space!

No mother would ever want to rush her baby’s birth. We know how vital waiting is to a baby coming into life fully whole. Our Daddy is quite the same. He knows that our seasons of waiting are not to destroy us or leave us ultimately empty-handed. He’s fully present and fully active while we are being so beautifully and healthily developed for the life that’s to come.

Sweet, faithful sister, can I remind you that you are not forgotten? That “thing” in your heart that you’ve tucked away like Mary did hasn’t long past. He won’t just one day in the future reveal himself. He’s in the now! In the waiting. And, after all—No One is more worthy of the wait.