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Lamentations 3:25
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
Over 150 times in the Bible the word wait is used, and waiting is not usually what we want to do. Even as I observe how God works in creation, I see that waiting is a very normal part of the process.
Every June, the fields in Oxford are covered with buttercups, breathtakingly beautiful. But they are for a short season and then we wait again, through the cold storms of winter, another whole year, until we can again enjoy the glorious beauty.
Waiting, waiting, waiting seems to cover most of life.
Waiting to get a driver’s liscense when a teen.
Wait to get out of college, Wait for a job,Waiting to get married,
Waiting to get pregnant,
Waiting for the baby to be born, then sleep through the night, then get out of diapers, to walk, then……
Waiting for friendship, for prodigals to return, for teens to mature, better jobs, a better house, a better church, different circumstances, and on and on till you die. If we are always waiting until we can be happy, we will be disappointed most of life.
Often, emotional storms of our lives occur in a winter season, when life feels cold and dying. Waiting for the next thing that we suppose will make us happy, we drag through our days.. During these times we struggle with feelings of fear, “what if’s,” despair, isolation, loneliness, exhaustion.
Threatening storms, the anguish in a hard time, the pressure when we don’t know what is ahead, can hang heavy upon us. We bide our time because of our need to make it through the darkness and clouds. Often, we are tempted just to “gut it out” and just barely live through the long wait with the illusion that we will be happy when the “thing” we are waiting for happens.
But if we do not find contentment, joy, pleasure in the meantime while we wait, we will waste most of life. And in the wasting, our hearts and souls will grow in despair. And often the things we were waiting for didn’t bring the perfect solution we were hoping for.
“In the meantime,” the time between what we want and when we get an answer embodies most of life. Most days are pretty much the same: Eating, working, cleaning up, sleeping and then again.
But, what we choose to do with our life “in the meantime” is what will write most of the story of our whole lives. To leave a legacy of love, faith, joy, goodness we must search for them in the hidden, mundane days, not in the exceptional events.
As I pondered the life of my whole family at present, it seems that all of us are waiting right now—waiting for a surgery date, children waiting for job opportunities, housing, future jobs, etc.
Who you are “in the wait” and how you cultivate your life in the meantime is shaping your character, your faith, your life messages more than anything else.
Cultivating a life filled with beautiful rhythms, life giving rituals, attitudes of gratefulness, is what shapes our hearts and minds in the midst of the storms. The agency we have to believe forward in God’s goodness and faithfulness will make every day meaningful, every day a gift, as we wait with hope.
In the meantime, today, as you wait for life to pass, how are you living well? What are you doing to validate each day as one in which you can rejoice and see God’s goodness?
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