Waiting

“I can’t wait for things to go back to normal.”  

I’ve heard this—and said this—a lot lately.  I’m terrible at waiting, and I don’t think I’m alone.  We live in the “I want what I want when I want it” era, and expect instant gratification.  I like swift results for my effort, whether that’s learning a new stay-and-shelter hobby or losing my newfound quarantine pounds.  When time is our most precious commodity, isn’t faster always better?

I suspect past generations were better at waiting, largely because they didn’t have much choice.  New clothing started with a needle and thread.  Fresh bread meant grinding wheat into flour, shaping and leavening dough, baking.  If you wanted fruits or vegetables, you planted a seed.  Even just twenty years ago, watching a movie required a trip to Blockbuster.  Now we can get all of the above delivered and streamed in under an hour.    

What sounds like inefficiency now was in fact the design of a deliberate God who isn’t “slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Peter 3:9).  Throughout the Bible, His revelation unfolds methodically.  We see this in his oversight of the Israelites:

“I will not drive [your enemies] out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you.  I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous and take possession of the land.” Exodus 23:29-30

I presume the Israelites would have preferred wiping out their enemies in a single blow, but God played the long game, just as he continues to do with us.  It is a lesson in faith.  We learn patience and what it means to surrender as we put in the work and leave the results to God.  Our character develops in the waiting.  Though we may feel as though we’re treading water, sowing but not reaping, we enjoy the knowledge that:

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”  Isaiah 64:4

God works for us while we wait.  He knows the end from the beginning and slows the pace between, taking time to develop our character, readiness, and our relationship with Him.  My dear friend and fellow Riverbender, Audrey Parker, once said: “Root-building doesn’t look like much above ground.”  She’s right, it looks like nothing; it looks like waiting.