Waiting without Wasting

We’re waiting. Not in a line where we can see the end and time our progress. Not for a day we circled on the calendar when everything turns back to normal. We’re waiting without a clear end in sight.

And while we wait, we adapt to Zoom church and family drive-by’s. We try to keep routine even if routines are far from normal. While waiting feels like an unnecessary accessory, waiting is our key to whatever is next.

Even more importantly is the reminder that waiting is God’s laboratory. It’s where we grow. It’s where He asks us to put our expectations under His microscope. Waiting is God’s one-on-one workshop where He wants to teach us a new skill or discipline.

This is waiting without waste. It is waiting by design. It is waiting with purpose.

What wastes this time? Letting feelings direct our attitudes about waiting. Giving in to inertia because we can’t have what we want. Thinking this time has nothing to offer. And the biggie: asking the wrong questions.

What are the wrong questions? When will this end? What will happen? Why is this

happening? Those are dead end questions. They carry no growth with them.

David spent a lot of his life waiting. Perhaps it was built into his shepherding life. With time on his hands, he found God in the green hills, the blue sky, the field’s flowers. Perhaps that is why he uses the idea of waiting for God almost more than any other biblical writer.

• He learned the importance of asking God something and waiting for God’s answers. (Ps. 5:3)

• He knew God was all strength, so he waited for God’s strength before he acted with his own. (Psalm 59:9)

• He waited with heart, hope, and patience. (Psalm 27:14, 33:20, 33:7)

• He learned to keep doing whatever God had already taught him while he waited. (Psalm 37:4)

David helps me learn to ask the right questions during a waiting time. Here are some of mine:

• · What does God want me to learn about how I deal with change?

• · What does God want to say about what I want or expect?

• · What should my focus be and how can I let God define and direct it?

So whether it is the closed-down, stay-at-home, nothing normal life that Covid-19 delivered to our doorsteps or whether something else has shifted in life and placed us in a waiting room we didn’t want; don’t waste this time. Be intentional. Be obedient. Be committed to take the workshop on waiting that God will personally teach.

Then, get ready for a growth spurt. There is no wasting with God’s waiting. And this is our opportunity to prove it.