The Waiting Game


I don't know if you've been to a Costco on a Sunday, but it is an unreal human experience. There are people everywhere, sluggishly pushing their shopping carts around one another, with no real flow of movement. Yet, onwardly we trudge, navigating a sea of products and deals, all in bulk, occasionally in unreasonable amounts.

Today as we were leaving Costco, there was quite a backup of cars. Miraculously we made it to the exit of the parking lot, only to be met by some cross-traffic that must be waited for. As I waited for the truck pulling a U-turn, and the Honda following behind him, the car behind me jumped out, as if to go around me.

I responded with less than kind words, as I am still a work in progress. He realized his mistake (the truck was still in-process of completing the U-turn) and ended up having to wait for me anyway. But, there is something about having to wait that reveals to us just how impatient we are. Go to Costco on a Sunday, wait to get access to the products, wait in the lines, wait to leave and you will see just how good you are at waiting.

It feels like so much of life is a waiting game. We tell ourselves, that's when our lives will really take off. There's the big picture stuff that we wait for.

We wait to:

  • Retire
  • Get married
  • Go on vacation
  • Buy a home
  • Have kids
  • Get a degree
If we're being honest, doesn't waiting on this stuff kind of always let us down or underwhelm?

But there is also the small picture waiting. Sometimes, it feels like all I'm doing is waiting. For example, I'm waiting for the week to end so I can have a day off. I'm waiting for the new year or the next week, because that's when "I'm really going to start eating right, exercising, and losing weight." I'm waiting for a big event to happen, or I'm waiting for another event to end. 

"If I can just make it to next week," I tell myself. "If I just get that job, or that opportunity." "If I can just get home." It can start to feel like so much of life is just waiting for that one thing to happen that will make our lives better. The next job, the next relationship, the next day off, the next break, the next class, the next time we see family - that's when life will really pick up. 

But, is that a healthy way to live? 
Is that even a fun way to live?

One theme that emerges out of the Bible is that God's people are called to wait for Him. We consistently hear about "Waiting on the LORD." "Everything happens on God's timing," we say.

But something lies deeper behind that call to wait upon the LORD. 

We really are waiting on that thing that will make our life better. 
We are waiting on that thing that will make us free, or more in control, or happier, or more fulfilled. 
We are waiting on that one thing that we think holds the ultimate. 


We are waiting on something to deliver us. 

It might be a new position, a promotion, a relationship, more sex, better sex, more money, more free time, more education, something to spice things up. We cannot avoid it, because we are human, we are always waiting, and we are always hoping for more. Death, taxes, and waiting for something better - it is inevitable in the human experience. 


Here is what lies deeper: what we wait for signifies what we hope in.

Consider only some of these calls from the Psalms (just one book!) to wait for the LORD:

Psalm 25:3 - Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Psalm 25:5 - Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 25:21 - May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.

Psalm 27:14 - Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; Wait for the LORD!

Psalm 31:24 - Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!

Psalm 33:20 - Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 37:7 - Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

Psalm 37:9 - For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

Psalm 37:34 - Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.

Psalm 38:15 - But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

Psalm 39:7 - “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.

Psalm 40:1 - I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 52:9 - I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.

Psalm 62:1 - For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

Psalm 62:5 - For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

From these we get the BIG QUESTION:

Why should we wait on God alone?

God calls us to wait upon Him because He is the only person that can truly satisfy the longing of our feeble human hearts. What we wait for with the utmost longing is actually the thing what we truly put our hope in, and God knows that we are made to hope in Him. 

From these Psalms, we see that those who wait for the LORD will not be put to shame. It is good to wait. From God comes our salvation. Our hope is in God as we wait on Him. God is our help and our shield. Waiting on God gives our heart courage and helps us to be preserved in uprightness. In short, waiting upon the LORD first and foremost helps us to "major on the majors."

Waiting upon the LORD to deliver us helps us to walk in His ways. We won't depart from His ways, because we trust in His ultimate delivering power. We don't put our hope in the creation to make our lives better, happier, or more joyful. We put our hope in the Creator and Sovereign LORD who alone can satisfy. 

Consider what James says about waiting:

James 4:13–17
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

We do not know what tomorrow will bring, and even our life is a mist in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, we should consider what we will do and what we will accomplish to be in the hands of the LORD. In that way we avoid boasting in the arrogance we have as a simple mist in the presence of the everlasting God. Or, as my grandma used to say, "We make plans, and God laughs."

How can we wait well?

We base our waiting on God and not the things of this life. 

We look to the transitory nature of our lives and consider them in light of the magnitude of God. This keeps us looking to the eternal instead of the temporal, and it actually frees us up to enjoy the pleasures and good things of life in the proper perspective. 

We acknowledge, even through tears, that we aren't in control of the universe, or even our own lives in so many ways. Instead of living in the future, we live in the present in hope of the LORD. It is  in waiting for the LORD that we keep our lives free from the sin and anxiety that so easily entangles us. When we wait well, we keep life in proper perspective, and we can live in and enjoy the present. Lastly, we keep hoping in God, the only One who can ever truly deliver us, and the Creator who truly satisfies. 

Well, what are you waiting for?







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