~Pastor Greg
Waiting. I had some opportunity to do a little thinking about waiting this week – not surprisingly while I was actually doing some waiting. We spend a lot of time waiting. We wait for something to happen, wait for someone to call (or text), wait for the light to turn green, wait to get results back, wait in line, wait for the class to end, wait for parents to show up, we wait.
Waiting does not seem to bring out the best in me. While waiting I find myself getting restless, impatient, frustrated, and even a little angry. I keep thinking about all the time that is going by, all the things I have to do, all the things that aren’t getting done while I wait. Waiting has a way of leveling things – everybody has to wait. And while we wait we’re all the same. Everyone sitting in a hospital waiting room is doing the same thing – waiting. Everyone awaiting test results is doing the same thing – waiting.
What I realized this week, as I was waiting, is that so much of my frustration and impatience at having to wait comes about because I don’t want to be like everyone else. I want to believe that my time, the things I have to do, my plans are somehow more important and more significant than those of others. That somehow making me wait is a greater injustice than making someone else wait. In other words, waiting exposes my selfishness.
My waiting this week led me to two thoughts. First, it occurred to me that while I tend to think of waiting as forcing me to be at the mercy of others, it can also be an opportunity to serve others. Perhaps not serving in the way we usually think – physically doing something – but serving nonetheless. Waiting is an opportunity to recognize the needs of those around us. The people around us who are waiting also have things they want to do, plans they want to attend to, places they would rather be. Their plans are just as important as ours, their time just as precious. Maybe instead of stewing about how our time is being wasted, waiting provides us with an opportunity to pray for those who are also waiting. Look around you the next time you are waiting at a stoplight and pray for the person in the car ahead of you. Maybe pray for the person in line in front of you with 17 items (instead of mentally accusing them of not being able to read the “15 items or less” sign). Think about praying for the person sitting across from you in the waiting room who, like you, probably doesn’t want to be there.
Second, while I was waiting, God brought Psalm 27:14 to mind: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Later I read the Psalm and took note that earlier the Psalmist asks God to teach him his way. It occurred to me that there might be a connection between learning and waiting. Learning to live as one of God’s children is not something that happens according to our timetable. Learning to live as a follower of Jesus isn’t something that we can do based on our schedule – fitting it in between work and the gym quick a minute. Instead, most of the times we really learn something about God is when we are waiting – when we are open to his leading. Maybe making us wait is God’s way of teaching us something of his ways.
