This evening is another beautiful evening on the banks of the beautiful Ockluhwahhah River, which flows south from here until it joins the French Broad many miles from the end of Old Field Road. For the sake of trivia, i thought this was interesting: The name, Ockluhwahhah River, is a corruption of ak-low-wah-‘hey, Creek Indian for “muddy creek”. And yes, it’s a real creek.
I’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast of cool jazz and contemplative conversation. Peace is available from God for all who would ask Him, even those who are awake in the late night hours, some sitting in their big armchairs pondering the events of the week, looking for a little closure on some of life’s open-ended items, others tossing and turning, trying to sleep, looking for rest in a world which offers very little closure or peace.
i was at the jail doing Thursday church a few weeks ago with a friend and he was explaining to the inmates about the extraordinary events which brought him out of his criminal thinking nose dive. It occurred to me that the things which brought my friend to an awakening relationship with God were events spread across many years, it wasn’t simply an overnight thing. While listening to his testimony, a question came to me, “After you believed, in between the times of refreshing from the Lord, what did you do with yourself? While you were waiting, what did you do with your time?” When there was a lull in the room from all the talking, i asked that very question which the Lord had put to me. The room of chatter came to a sudden standstill. i suppose we don’t think about the in-between times much. i realized people, typically, are really bad at waiting. We often speak of events in our lives, but rarely discuss what we do in between those events. If we were to plot a graph showing noteworthy occurrences in our lives, i believe we’d see a lot of flat line, way more flat line than upward blips where relatable events occurred.
The word “wait” is used approximately 148 times in the Bible, so i’m going to assume it’s an important thing to do from God’s perspective, but, considering how much waiting we have to do in life, you would think we would be much better at it than we are. If you need a visual, the Hebrew word comes with the idea of “swirling in a circular pattern”, sort of like the picture of an airplane circling the airport waiting to land. Yes, waiting to land. The word waiting is occasionally used in conjunction with hope, but is more often a certain amount of laborious effort and agonizing patience is buried in the belly of the word for “wait”. It seems life is all about biding time most of the time … just waiting … so we wait, knowing patience is seldom easy, it is always rewarding, it’s a reward i gladly receive but i am tested to my last nerve in the tedium of waiting. i don’t think anyone ever said , “Wow! i’m really looking forward to waiting,” although i’m always glad at the results of my waiting saying, “Gosh, i’m so glad i waited,” but it was all still very unpleasant … all that waiting.
Life often just goes on around me and i simply don’t participate. i’ve wondered why is that? Even though i’m present, inside i feel like i’m going through all the motions of being present, but the truth is, i’ve realized i’m actually waiting but for what? Some days, in the middle of all my waiting, it feels like i’ve been holding my breath for months or even years in some sort of anticipation. That’s a pretty good picture of what it means to “wait”. Sometimes it’s breathlessly waiting, other times i’m nervous for some reason as if something amazing is about to happen, i have no idea what, but here i sit, waiting. Always waiting. i’d bet we can all relate to that.
What do you do with your time while you wait? How do you occupy your time when you are in a holding pattern? It seems life is all about biding our time. For many, they’ve been waiting, but they’ve been waiting so long i think they may have lost sight of what they’re waiting for and now they are lost in the holding pattern of waiting, the circling agony of prolonged waiting, having lost the vision of why. Those who wait without a “why” look, to me, like lines of pointless, lifeless carcasses, living in greyscale, and don’t know why they wait. Waiting without having a “why” and there’s no vision for an end point just seems like dying to me. What are we waiting for?
Acts 1:13-14, “And they had entered the city, they went up the stairs to the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All of these with their minds in full agreement devoted themselves steadfastly to prayer, waiting together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
According to “The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament”, there is the implication of “indefinitely” in the sentence where it says, “…where they were staying”. The disciples went into the Upper Room with a mind-set that said, “We are not coming out of here until God shows up.” They did not go in there to wait ten minutes. They didn’t go in there to wait two days. They did not go in there to wait three months. Their objective was to connect with the Lord, waiting as long as it took in order to accomplish that goal. They weren’t pointlessly biding their time, oh no, they had an objective, they had a “why”, they had a reason to wait. They weren’t looking for an experience or to have an “event”, nor did they sell tickets as if they anticipated some spectacle. No. They went in there saying, “We cannot do all that God wants us to do without His full power in our lives.” Like those who entered the Upper Room to wait for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we should approach God with a similar attitude that says, “I’m waiting on You, Lord, indefinitely, until I receive your authorization to continue and your power to go forward in your name” and then with all purpose, long-suffering, and determination, we wait on God.
Waiting for God, or anything else for that matter isn’t easy. i have difficulty waiting for a sandwich at a fast food place, much less having to wait on the move of God. Hey, it’s not easy. We have so much energy and such heated passion for the Lord and His cause, or even our own ideas, that if waiting is ever gotten around to, there’s a pause, only for short periods, before we’re off and running, the energy of all that thinking and wanting just takes over again. Round and round and round.
Often, if God does not do something as quickly as we want, then our own bright ideas overtake us again and we’re right back in our own momentum. It is unbelievable how often the same ground is constantly covered and re-covered, thinking we are really getting somewhere, when really much of it all is just going in circles. i believe we really do make some progress in our waiting, but then we become impatient and lose our place, we gain a little ground then get lost due to our impatience. We have to “capture and hold”, or “Hold the line!” We must stand fast in the freedom we are given and not allow ourselves to become slaves all over again to the yoke of bondage we have previously been relieved of. Even when we do not “see” something or if we don’t “feel” that God is working … friends, “capture and hold” the moment, believe and stand fast on His promise that He is working mightily on our behalf, not allowing ourselves to become impatient, missing God’s opportunity. Think! We inherit the promises of God through faith and patience according to Hebrews 10:36.
The mind-set we need to have is … “Lord, i have come to the end of myself. I don’t have what it takes. It is obvious I cannot do what needs to be done by myself. I need you, for only You can do it. I’m waiting on You.”
Waiting! Oh gosh sometimes that is so difficult. To “wait on God” means “to stay in place with the expectation of His further direction.” If there is one thing i know, it is this: The Lord hears me, and He WILL answer, but i do have to wait, which is a good thing yet such a difficult thing.
Psalms 62:5 “My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.”
Be encouraged to be willing to wait on God, as long as it takes. Are you willing to wait on God? i am included in my own question, Am i willing to wait on God? i say to myself, “Yes”, but i challenge my enthusiastic answer in realizing that saying “yes” and doing “yes” are often very different the same way “having wisdom and doing wisdom are often two different things”. For me, i have learned to be careful what i say “yes” to, and, once i say “yes” i must be prepared to change my agenda, objectives, or priorities in order to accomplish what it is God has asked of me to do. And then wait. On a side note, i’ll add, if you’re too busy, remember, you’re the one who said yes. Don’t miss that, here it is again, if you’re too busy, remember, you’re the one who said yes. We must also face the fact that sometimes when we tell others, “i’m too busy”, more often than we care to admit, i think what we’re really saying is “it’s not that important” and saying, “i’m too busy” is an excuse.
i read a story of Mother Teresa who wanted to go to a distant town to see if God wanted to do something there. She and another sister went, taking their staff and one change of clothes. They slept where they could and ate as God provided, waiting and praying for God to show them what He wanted them to do. As they waited for God under the big tree in the middle of town, they began to encounter the town children who lived on the street, and while they were waiting to find out what God wanted to do, they decided that in the mean time, they would teach the children to read. They put out the word if any children wanted to learn to read and write, for them to come to the big tree. Before long there were many children coming. In the end, while they were waiting to find out what God wanted to do, they raised a school, a mission, and a small medical center. God’s two exemplary servants waited on God, they did what was in front of them in the mean time and the Lord greatly blessed them.
The phrase “killing time” is an idiom, meaning we are engaging in some self-generated busy activity, usually an aimless one, with the goal of making time pass more quickly while we wait. Instead of “killing time” being busy so as to not notice we are waiting on something to happen, maybe we could be more committed to the Lord’s preferences and standards, doing what God has put in front of us, while we are waiting on God,
i went to the doctor’s office a while back, checked in, then was directed to have a seat in a place called “The Waiting Room”, oh yes, the dreaded Waiting Room. As i sat there i began to notice the overall idea of this place specifically designed for waiting. There were well thumbed through, tired looking magazines, restrooms which were nice yet sterile, very impersonal. A clean water fountain but still with finger prints on the button which the custodian failed to wipe off last night, a stack here and there of informational pamphlets which no one wanted to look at, and a string of somewhat comfortable non-descript generic chairs, wide and narrow, with plastic upholstery. The room itself is bored and tired. Then, of course, there are people, quite a few people, sitting, all waiting, after all, what would a waiting room be if there were no people to wait there. Some staring, others reading, dozing, softly talking, all waiting. The room wasn’t designed for extended stays but obviously someone realized that people, in general, don’t wait well, and went to work to provide an environment that made waiting less difficult and a little less painful in all that waiting.
We spend time in life waiting far more than anything else we do. Think about it, we wait at traffic lights, wait for food, wait to meet someone, wait for meetings, wait for the weather to change, wait for help, wait for the doctor, wait for justice, wait at the grocery store, wait at restaurants, and wait to get well, all that only to name a few. Sometimes we wait for people to make up their mind which seems to take extra patience, or so it seems. i’ll say it again, as much as we spend our lives in the process of waiting you’d think we would be much better at it than we are, and without a firm understanding of “Why” we are waiting, then what are we waiting for? Waiting without having a “why” and there’s no vision for an end point just seems like dying to me.
An infographic is a quick, clear visual representation of information; we don’t have to read much to get the data we’re looking for. Noah Davis wrote, “One infographic reported that our attention spans have dropped from 12 minutes to five. The rise of infographics in themselves is yet another example of humanity’s inability to read anything for more than a few words at a time without becoming incomprehensibly bored.” Mr. Davis continues, “Another site goes even further, claiming that attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013 — or one second shorter than the attention span of a goldfish.” Honestly i don’t even know how to wrap my head around the idea that goldfish may have a longer attention span than many of us.
One of the important exhortations of the Bible is the call to “wait on the Lord.” Even though God promises special blessing for waiting, again, waiting is one of the most difficult exhortations of Scripture. Why is it so hard? Is it that somehow we’re sure we’ve got better things to do? Is it that we resent not getting what we want right NOW? Why do we need to entertained in order to wait? Phone in had, scroll, scroll, scroll. And when we’re bored, we tend to take matters into our own hands, to follow our own schemes when we have decided we’ve waited enough, saying under our breath, “i’ll just do it myself because God simply isn’t going to do anything.” Yet, over and over again we are told in Scripture “wait on the Lord.” Adam and Eve took matters into their own hands and did not wait on God to open their eyes, they decided to open their own eyes. That was not a very good day for them or any of the rest of us.
Israel had to wait to enter the promised land in Numbers 14, but then they, yes “they” decided to take matters into their own hands and tried to enter in anyway. Who decided to take matters into their own hands? They did, not God. Moses told them “Don’t do that”, but they just couldn’t wait and went anyway. Sadly, they were met by their enemies who drove them all the way back to Hormah. Opposingly, Abraham waited on God, and his waiting paid off, bigtime, in that a nation was raised up which covered the earth from east to west who were blessed of God.
Waiting creates time during which we learn to trust God. Lamentations 3:24-26 calls us to hope in and wait on the Lord because God often uses waiting to refresh, renew, and teach us. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
Waiting on God prepares us to have our real needs met. In Psalm 40:1-4 David received four benefits from waiting: God lifted him out of his despair; set his feet on a hard, firm path; steadied him as he walked; and put a new song of praise in his mouth. I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!”
Waiting gives us the opportunity to work out our faith. Learning to wait builds endurance, and the ability to withstand hardship or adversity. In waiting we learn to believe God, to stand firm on His word and it also builds persistence – persistence and endurance are not a means to gain salvation; they are a profitable by-product of a devoted life. i believe it’s necessary to point out the secret to enduring is trust and obedience. Trust God to give you patience to endure even the small trials you face every day; do what God says, even when deferring to God’s process is unattractive. That is not “do what He says” in the sense of keeping rules but in the sense of “yield and let His words persuade you”. Remember, not rules to keep but someone to be. Character!
Patience is developed through waiting. i can’t say i know of anyone who can’t wait to learn patience, although i do consider waiting in line at the grocery store an opportunity to practice my patience while waiting on an elderly lady to dig through her special little change purse to find exact change. While we are developing patience through waiting, even though God promises to reward our learning to wait, we sometimes feel the “payoff” is too far away. Practice one of your fruits of the Spirit, Be patient. God will answer, guaranteed. Let Him expand your attention span to be longer than aquarium gold fish. Wait on the Lord my friend, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Think about it
Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”
Psalm 37:9, “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.”
Psalm 37:34, “Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall lift you up high to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.” Friends, waiting isn’t fun nor easy but learning to wait is a building block of our faith.
i’m Social Porter, and this production was brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars the home of excellent service and sales at a righteous price, Quality Tire’s very own Jimmy Payton, Kenny Maxwell at Farm Equipment Company on Chimney Rock Rd., the Mill End Store and Silk Shop out in Clear Creek, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.
Be patient this week, be kind to yourself, tomorrow is another day. The hurt of getting something wrong, And the lesson it often brings, all of that is there to make you strong, all in good time. Life can be tough, there’s no doubt, but hope is the thing we can’t do without. Right things with joy will come about, all in good time. And that isn’t just “good time” but more God-time, the right time, right on time. You’ll see.
Practice your endurance while on the path to where you’re going. Wait on the Lord, be strong and courageous until we meet again.