Waiting

Can I ask you, what is the benefit of waiting? I don’t like to wait. For that matter, I don’t know who does. I am sure thatthere is some person who loves pain and likes to wait in traffic. I am sure there is someone out there. It’s not me.

I ask this because God has lately drawn me to Psalm 62. In particular I have felt led to pray verse 5: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.” I keep looking for another text from Psalm 62 to speak to me. Please Lord, can you ask me to do something else?

But then I hear nothing. So I begin to wait in silence. Soon though I get impatient and begin to ask: Why can’t I move ahead? Why are you holding back? Why must I wait?

I don’t know the answer. I wish I did. I chuckle though when I think, God is saying, “Wait and I will give you the answer to why I am asking you to wait.”

In the meantime, while I wait, I have noticed that He has called others to wait as well. I think of Abraham waiting for Isaac, Joseph waiting for a dream to come true, others waiting for the Baby Jesus become the Adult Jesus. And they had to wait a long time—years! Ugh, please no, God.

I guess the good thing, though, is that God is not picking on me. He’s loving me and possibly, it shudders me to say it, using waiting as a forming process to make me into the man He wants me to be.

The truth is that I want Him to zap me into the man after His own heart. Just give me a shot of grace mixed with a full portion of His Spirit and I can call Him in the morning. But I don’t think that can happen. Check that…He can do it but that is not His normal process.

And so I will wait. I will struggle, yes, but I will wait in silence. The truth is I want to wait. I want to obey God and be His faithful follower. I have just become whiny about it.

I wish I could wait around and tell you the answer to why God wants me to wait. But I have no time. I have to get home so I can eat with my family. I hope Christy makes something good. You know, now that I think of it, I would love some pot roast tonight. I want good pot roast, the kind that has been simmering for hours and hours. I don’t want something that is thrown in the microwave. I want something that comes out of the crock pot. I want the meat to fall apart and be tender like butter. Mmm, I can taste it now.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

Maybe God is slow cooking some pot roast.

The great photo was taken by Dave Gilbert