Out came the scratch pad to receive another download in my waking hours this morning, a Biblical study on a particular topic that I’m quite expert in: waiting, having spent most of my days as a follower of Jesus Christ in this mode of living.
As a brand new born-again believer, recent bride and first-time mother some twenty-nine years ago, I could not begin to imagine the life of waiting that would begin when I shared with my husband of two years the encounter I had experienced with the living Lord. My announcement was met with scorn and rejection, inaugurating this life of waiting which finally met its consummation some eighteen years down the road as Jesus proved himself irresistible to the most stubborn of men. It was a most difficult time of life as I walked the path of the unequally yoked fraught with loneliness, worry, and heartache, not knowing if this wilderness journey would ever end or if my dearly beloved would forever be consigned to a place of judgment. At my first church home, I received a word through a dear grandmother in the Lord who had taken me under her wing which spoke of the certainty of Mike’s future salvation. Those words proved to be a lifeline of hope against all odds which shouted in opposition to the possibility. My two-year old son and I would find refuge and solace in the embrace of the body of believers who struggled to keep their small country church alive after a vicious split. Mikey would run down the center aisle each Sunday morning to be picked up and placed next to Aunt Hazel on the front pew while I sat alone, fighting the tears that came with the profound aloneness. I know what it is to wait.
A life derailed by misguided Christ-followers has catapulted me from place to place over the past few years into my present waiting hours. I have come to realize that most of life, whether you are a Christian or not, is about the waiting and not the enjoyment of the fruits thereof which more often than not comprise the smallest increments of time in our short lives and the living out of these lives is learning how to live in the waiting.
What is it that we wait for? The fulfllment of a dream, a better time in life, the healing of some sickness, the conception of a child, financial rescue, the hope of friendship? Ultimately, are we not all waiting for the same thing, the revelation of the sons of God at the coming of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ while the rest is all distraction? For He alone is waiting’s ultimate purpose and reward. We may not realize it on the surface, but our souls know.
An outline has been given. A second project in as many days is set in motion. Abba, renew within me the drive, the determination, the trust in you as I undertake the handling of these timely gifts, the answer to my many prayers and waiting hours, that they might be given in turn to your people. The empty hours have met their match in time’s Author.
