Waiting

Waiting is hard. The concept of waiting patiently is not valued nor modeled in our culture. My patience has been tested in waiting in the drive-thru lane for fast food, waiting for a three-minute meal in the microwave, and waiting for the computer to reboot. Waiting for something over a period of weeks, months, or years has been almost more than I could stand at times. Yet, whether I like it or not, waiting is a part of my life. 

Earlier this year, it was hard waiting to return to a pattern of normal breathing and to a pattern of daily sweet fellowship with God.  I wrote in my last post about my renewed struggle with HVS (hyperventilation syndrome).  The struggle lasted for almost a month. Looking back now, a month doesn't seem like a very long time to wait, but during that month it seemed like a terribly long time, especially since I had no way of knowing when -- or even if -- I would come out of that struggle. 

Since then I have been reflecting on the idea of "waiting", trying to see its value as God sees it.  Speaking of a man whose "delight is in the law of the LORD", Psalm 1:3 says that he "is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither."  Yields its fruit in season. This challenges my cultural mindset on waiting.  How often I want immediate fruit rather than waiting for its season!

But when I step back and look at God's created order, waiting seems to be an important part of how God intends for life on this earth to work.  I can't make a fruit tree produce its fruit any faster than it will be borne in its season.  Likewise, I couldn't rush the 9-month process of pregnancy.  Critical stages of development happened throughout those months, and it was a process that couldn't be rushed. 

I may not like waiting, but I am trying to embrace it as a necessary, important part of life that has been ordained by an all-wise, loving God.  And just as God has created waiting to be part of the physical order of things, I need to accept His wisdom in including waiting as part of spiritual, mental, and emotional processes too.

May I come to trust and rest in God so much that -- when the waiting gets hard -- I can say, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him." (Lam. 3:24).