Just like the saying "everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time," we are all waiting for something. Waiting for that next birthday, or promotion, or paycheck. Waiting for a husband or a wife or a child. Waiting for a fun trip or news from a doctor. Waiting for healing or reconciliation.
It is easy to become consumed with whatever it is we're waiting for and forget that everyone is in the waiting. I was reminded of that today when I visited my sweet grandfather in the assisted living center. Over his favorite Sonic meal, he brought up his own cause for waiting. This man, who has walked the earth for 88 years and was married for 67 of them, who has lived through wars and disease and injuries and the loss of my dear Meemaw, continues to face a season of waiting. He hasn't outgrown it or graduated from it. Does he ever get impatient? Sure he does! Don't we all?
And yet, his conclusion today was that God knows what He is doing and we have to trust Him.
Waiting is not a childhood or young adult phase or a class you can skip or pass. It is something we all face for varying lengths of time and during which we experience varying levels of suffering or pain or loneliness or heartache.
In the Bible, David writes a song about waiting on God. He asks God how long he'll have to wait. When you read Psalm 13, it is so easy to commiserate with David - easy to ask how long and why. And yet, this man in waiting determines in his heart that he will trust the Lord,
"But I trust in Your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in Your salvation.
I will sing the Lord's praise
for He has been good to me."
Waiting is hard stuff, but it does not mean God has forgotten us. He is right there, facing it with us. So often what we need is a change in perspective. I got that from Peepaw today - a reminder that I'm not the only one in waiting. And there is comfort in that.
"Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work."
- Peter Marshall
"Trusting God doesn't alter our circumstances. Perfect trust in Him changes us."
- Chuck Swindoll
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